Paula Butterly (Louth, Fine Gael)

Hello to the officials. I am from the Louth constituency. I will start with the ESB. The port access northern cross route, PANCR, in Drogheda is intended to have 7,000 homes. Phase 2 is about to start any time now. My understanding is in or around April of this year a moratorium was placed on new connections. I cannot overstate the importance the PANCR project will have for a town like Drogheda. Has this moratorium been lifted? The substations at Drybridge and Termonfeckin Road have been the subject of contention. Has that been reviewed and resolved? The officials will tell me better, but I believe we need to raise the caps on the transformers. Has the ESB looked at auditing any dormant and unused connections to free up additional space? Will there be a third - pardon me because I am not technical - 63 MVA transformer? As I said, the importance to the town of these 7,000 homes is incredible. We have got IDA lands, we hope with businesses about to move in, that will need connections. It is vital we are up to speed on this. I would like to hear the progress that has been made since this moratorium was apparently called.

I put the same matter to Irish Water. I believe we have capacity for only about 800 homes in the Drogheda PANCR area. Pardon the pun, but if we stall the digger on these homes being built and all the additional services that go with them I cannot imagine what the detrimental effect could be on the town in relation to future jobs, future homes and the future of the town itself.

Also on water, I would like to hear any updates regarding Dundalk because we have huge issues with both clean water and wastewater in Drogheda, Dundalk and also in Ardee. The councillors in Dundalk have been very active about blocking some homes. I cannot go any further because I believe it is part of legal proceedings now. A key issue that really worries the people of Blackrock at the moment is the water quality. The suspicion is it is coming as a result of the overflow of the wastewater treatment. I would like to hear the Uisce Éireann officials' opinion on that because it is hugely concerning to people in Blackrock and Dundalk.

I hope I got the technical aspects right. I probably did not but the officials will know what I was trying to say.