Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not want to raise anything new. I will raise one issue with the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, to reiterate one point.

I thank the Minister for his responses in respect of elderly housing options. I totally agree with him that it should be on a voluntary basis. The reality, however, is those options are not there for people. We have to be quite prescriptive as a Government in our planning framework or planning guidelines. Where there are large tracts of land zoned for housing, we have to insist that portions of that will be made available for housing for the elderly. That will free up larger properties for families. To reiterate, this is based on a voluntary move by those elderly people. It is something that came up quite a lot at the doors with me. Many of them want to make this move but they feel the options are not there for them. I am not asking the Minister of State to come back on that but just to reiterate that point.

I raise the issue of water quality in Cork city with the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan. It is a significant issue on both the northside and southside of the city. There is water discolouration and so on. I appreciate Uisce Éireann has undertaken works to try to improve the situation but it remains an ongoing challenge and issue. From the Minister of State's own point of view and that of the Department, is there ongoing contact with Uisce Éireann on this issue? I hope it is something it will get on top of in the near future.