Mr. David Flynn:

I might come in on that too, Chair, if that is okay. In terms of the urban wastewater side of things, in fairness to the Environmental Protection Authority, EPA, it produces reports on urban wastewater, on septic tanks, on the nitrates and phosphorous report it has produced recently and on water quality generally. It has never shied away from the fact that there are multiple pressures across all sides, including wastewater. The Government is putting a huge amount of investment into wastewater and into improving wastewater treatment in terms of raw sewage. There are areas that have been identified by the EPA. Projects by Irish Water, Uisce Éireann, are under way for all of those areas and by the end of 2025 all 32, bar two, should be dealt with in the areas identified in the EPA reports.

Similarly, there are two aspects where urban wastewater is concerned. There is directive compliance in terms of the actual quality of the treatment at each treatment plant. Then there are the pressures that wastewater, irrespective of its performance, is having on water quality itself. As the EPA has identified 208 water bodies that have wastewater as a significant pressure, I think it is identifying where wastewater issues are happening. It has identified agriculture as affecting 1,000 bodies of water, as I mentioned earlier.