Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My views on this are well known over the past 14 years and I think the Deputy's are as well. I mean no disrespect to the people in Uisce Éireann but I think this was a bad day's work. The reason given at the time was that cross-county infrastructure has been dealt with very simply to date by way of memorandums of understanding between local authorities, but it could also have been dealt with very simply in the same way as the NRA. Kildare County Council was the lead authority for the motorway that came through counties Kildare and Laois, namely, the M7-M8. I will not say there were no problems but it worked, the motorway is there and it was put in place. The same thing could have been done with the water system.

In respect of the Woodgrove housing estate, which is next door to where I live in Portlaoise, the correspondence states it is connected to the public system but that at this point there has been no application from the local authority for taking it in charge. I do not want to read out the rest of the response but it appears as though Uisce Éireann would be willing to take the estate in charge if everyone was okay with it. It states that following an application to review and follow up with Uisce Éireann approval, the local authority will bring the estate forward to formally take it in charge. It goes on to state that in the circumstances, Uisce Éireann advises contacting the local authority, which will be better placed to assist. Local representatives can deal with that but it is certainly an issue that has been raised with us and I welcome the clarification on it. If everyone is happy with the response, we will move on to the next item.

No. 2285B, from Ms Aileen Healy, director of administration at the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, dated 22 December, is a response to our request for a meeting with GSOC and An Garda Síochána. It is proposed to note and publish the item and consider it further, as discussed, at our work programme. Is that agreed? Agreed. Deputy Murphy flagged the item. Does she wish to leave it until the work programme?