Dr. Edmond O'Reilly:

First off, I will speak about the settlements that we service, and the untreated agglomerations are part of that number. There are six such settlements within the Gaeltacht areas which are part of the untreated agglomerations programme for which we have plans progressing. Across the 44 settlements in An Ghaeltacht where we have wastewater services, there are approximately 27, as I have said, which have capacity for growth where there are wastewater treatment plants in place and operating effectively. There are 13 which are constrained for growth, which are currently at capacity and are not fit-for-purpose, and we have plans in place for all of those. We understand what the need is and, in fact, most of those are part of the small towns and villages growth programme. This programme was established during this current investment, called RC3, or revenue control period 3.

This is a national programme where we look at the smaller settlements, and Gaeltacht areas are typified by small settlements around the country where they have suffered from a lack of investment over many years. By virtue of the fact they are small settlements; it is often difficult for them to be high on the priority list, nationally speaking. The small towns and villages growth programme was set up to address that issue and we are currently working our way through the programme. As I have said, the 13 wastewater treatment plants which are constrained from a capacity perspective are part of that programme. We understand the needs of those and are working our way through those now.

The point I make on that is that there are 280 such candidates throughout the country. These 13 are part of that 280 and it will take us quite a bit of time to get through all of those with regard to the investment required.