Mr. Eddie Taaffe:

It is good to see the Senator. I was involved in some of the LIHAF schemes a number of years ago. A LIHAF scheme is essential, but two things need to be addressed. First, local authorities are required, if memory serves, to provide 25% of the funding from their own resources. It is a very significant challenge for local authorities to provide that level of support. We would like to see it at 100% funding. Second, in numerous cases, if a piece of infrastructure that a developer could provide was involved, for example, a relief road that spanned a number of different landowners, and those landowners and developers were probably best placed to deliver that, one of the terms and conditions of the old scheme was the local authority had to deliver it directly, which slowed things down. There has to be a mechanism where we can partner with the private sector to deliver agreed infrastructure under an agreement or licence, and an agreed cost, so it can get on with it and deliver it quickly.

I urge significant caution and consideration regarding wastewater treatment systems. As the Senator said, we are still dealing with legacy issues in that regard. We have to think outside the box about how we provide wastewater treatment systems and infrastructure in more of our settlements. It is an issue that needs to be considered carefully, so it can be done to the correct environmental standards and is environmentally sustainable. The operational cost of these plants also needs to be considered. They require a fair bit of funding to keep them operational and to make sure they are operated by sustainable groups that will be around, be they Uisce Éireann or whatever. Funding should be in place to operate them correctly so we are not dealing with significant environmental issues in future.