Dr. Edmond O'Reilly:

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an gceist. Leanfaidh mé ar aghaidh as Béarla, lena toil. On the prioritisation of projects across the board, we have quite a large remit across the country to ensure we are bringing appropriate investment to locations where it is most needed and to ensure we are meeting our objectives nationally. By doing so, we have to submit our investment plans to the financial regulator and to demonstrate within those investment plans that we are carrying out our activities in an equitable manner, ensuring we are treating every area the same, and are achieving our priorities across the board.

With regard to Gaeltacht areas, in particular, from a wastewater point of view, there are 44 settlements across these areas in which we have wastewater services. Within those areas, I can see that 27 have capacity for growth and we have completed a number of projects across the Gaeltacht areas over recent years.

We have spent in excess of €110 million across the areas since the establishment of Uisce Éireann in 2014. We are continuing to develop our needs across the areas to ensure we have these included in our investment plans, going forward. We have-----