Dr. Edmond O'Reilly:

My short answer to that question is that I do not know and I could not say why the legislation was set up in such a way. We are certainly working with the local authorities and with the Department where these situations arise. The Department is administering the multi-annual rural water programme. Under measure 8 of that programme, it looks to establish new group or wastewater schemes where none previously existed. We are actively involved in technically assessing those and we are assisting the Department from that perspective. On the Deputy’s specific question as to why the system was set up in such a way, I cannot answer that.