Ms Angela Ryan:

Castletownbere, on the Beara Peninsula, is home to some of the last remaining populations of freshwater pearl mussels. These are special areas of conservation, SACs, so it is very difficult for us in these areas. It is a similar problem to that we experienced at Freemount. We are trying to not impact that species on the site. As to our legal obligations, we cannot grant new connections where we need an increase in abstraction.

We are not able to do that if there is a qualifying interest. The issue is there at present. We are trying in areas like the Beara Peninsula and the islands off the coast of Ireland to reduce leakage to an absolute minimum. We focus our linkage reduction programmes on those areas. We are also trying to promote water efficiency in those areas. We will work with Cork County Council in relation to future planning and future growth in those areas. We would like to look at examples where we can perhaps require water efficient measures to go into the conditions in planning permission to drive down demand management in those areas. However, it is very difficult for us. There are a large number of environmental designations in that area.