Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will try to be as focused as I can. Could ESB Networks confirm if all domestic customers who put up solar panels are guaranteed they will get a connection to the grid and will be able find someone to buy their surplus electricity?

My second question is to Uisce Éireann. Some 10% of houses in the State do not have a water supply from Uisce Éireann or a high-quality group scheme. That is an amazing number. They are dependent on private supplies, streams, wells, etc. Would Uisce Éireann be supportive of a plan, similar to the roll-out of fibre broadband, that would set about providing water to every house and premises in the country, as we did with electricity and are doing with broadband?

On the islands, could Uisce Éireann outline what plans it has to generate a resilient water supply to all islands? For example, from early spring to late autumn, depending on the weather, Inis Oírr has perennial problems with water supply. These have been going on year after year. Uisce Éireann is bringing tankers of water to the island on boats, which is costing a fortune. Does Uisce Éireann have a plan to deal with that issue?

My next question is a wider one which also involves the Department. Was consideration given to the feasibility of connecting the Aran Islands to the mainland via a pipe that would be laid at the same time as fibre is installed and, probably, another stronger electricity cable is laid? That would give some resilience in the event that we have a repeat of what happened previously when the cable was ripped up by a private operator. In Inishbofin, Uisce Éireann has had huge problems with water supply, which has been unavailable for long periods, although it was not as bad this year. We need resilience on the islands.

This takes me to the big question where the islands and Uisce Éireann interface, namely, sewage. On the islands, there is a tiny scheme that Uisce Éireann has inherited by accident or by way of a court case because the EPA got involved. The plant, at Kilronan, services seven houses. There is another small private scheme that serviced the public toilet, for which Uisce Éireann now has responsibility. Under the present regime, does Uisce Éireann see any possibility of providing the whole village of Kilronan with a wastewater service?

As regards the island of Inis Oírr, which has a very high population for a very small island, are there plans to provide a wastewater facility there? This is where the islands fund comes in. To go back to the old problem of cost-benefit analysis, would it change Uisce Éireann's attitude to getting on with these jobs if, for example, the Department with responsibility for the islands, as it often did with infrastructure in the past, stated it would provide 50% of the cost if Uisce Éireann provided the other 50% of the cost? Would that encourage Uisce Éireann to get on with this fundamental infrastructure?

For the islands section, the islands fund was used in the past for myriad infrastructure deficits. In fact, when any infrastructure deficits came our way, we just dealt with them. An example of that was when ESB Networks was willing to put in the distribution networks on small islands and the Department footed the bill for the undersea cable from the point on the mainland to the point on the island. I would like to see this being done. We did water and electricity on Gola Island at the same time. We should do water and electricity, as well as installing a fibre cable, or at least ducting for a cable, at the same time. Is that kind of adventurous spirit still alive in the Department's islands division? If not, the national policies will just not work on the basis that the islands will always be at the bottom of the pile in the cost-benefit analyses because the population, by definition, will be constrained. Population-wise, the biggest island we have is Inis Mór, which has a population of 800. The next biggest one is Árainn Mhór, which is very near the mainland and has a population of 500. The next one is Inis Oírr, which has 300 people. The island population is, therefore, small.

I have a question for the Department of Rural and Community Development on CLÁR funding. In the past, the CLÁR funds could be combined with the island funds for sewage schemes. On the mainland and the islands, CLÁR funding for some sewage schemes was provided on a 50:50 basis. We never used it on the islands at the time as it was not a big pressure point. The money was mainly used for piers and electricity. There was a scheme, and this relates to Uisce Éireann and the mainland, which the Department funds. It provides Uisce Éireann with funding for wastewater systems in unsewered towns and villages, which Uisce Éireann then provides. Small villages in the CLÁR areas and the islands lose out on this funding on the basis of size and we are getting back into the issue of the size of an area, such as Craughwell, Clarinbridge, etc. Could the Department of Rural and Community Development establish a 50:50 fund for CLÁR areas under which it would provide 50% of the funding for the provision of small sewage schemes in CLÁR areas specifically? These are areas where there has been a 30% loss in population since 1926. Would that be seen as an attractive prospect to try to ensure that these small places get a scheme? As I said, we need to be disruptive here.