Aubrey McCarthy (Independent)

I thank both teams for being here today. From being on the housing committee, it is clear to me that the housing crisis cannot be solved unless we have the infrastructure to support it. It is regularly brought up at this committee that there is a mismatch between the planning numbers and the infrastructure system. I work with a homelessness charity and I see every day how the blockages affect real people and that means families are without homes. Today, Uisce Éireann and ESB Networks are here to explain what the blockages are, where possible. It seems we cannot issue housing targets until we check there is infrastructure, but the infrastructure cannot be planned and put in place until we know where the housing is meant to be. That is what I have heard in the past few weeks.

How does ESB Networks plan? It has not been given figures for the demand for housing in various areas so how does it plan for that? What data does it rely on? Given that the national planning framework, NPF, did not release local housing targets, is ESB Networks effectively operating without local specific targets?

Also, I notice that 25% of national demand for the ESB is in north Dublin. Is that basically reacting to applications from developers? Is that what the ESB is basing its process of planning on? Does the ESB receive any formal advance information from the Department of housing or local authorities that allows it to forward-plan electricity infrastructure?

On a question to Irish Water, I looked at the €16.9 billion investment that is planned. That was based on the 33,000 target and while that target has recently been revised up to 50,000, the 50,000 figure has not been issued to local authorities in terms of the individual numbers. With regard to the €2 billion growth in investment required, how did Irish Water come up with that figure if the local figures have not been published? Given that the legal mandate of Irish Water is for environmental compliance, what assurance can this committee have that the €2 billion will not be spent on compliance issues and, therefore, not have any impact on our housing crisis?