Mr. Tim Murnane:

The issue of water and wastewater is fundamentally important in not putting the cart before the horse. These vital services have to be put in to enable subsequent development in towns, etc. Transport is another fundamentally important one. We need to invest in these basic public infrastructure utilities in advance. We need to invest in design before we go to site and it is the same in terms of investing in public utilities. There are good examples of this in some of the urban areas, for example putting in roads and the Luas in Cherrywood, Dublin, in advance of doing the residential development. That should be modelled in towns in rural Ireland. It is terrible thing when towns or villages have a wastewater constraint and cannot get planning permission because there is no capacity in the wastewater system. That is an appalling vista and sadly, applies too often. There needs to be investment in Uisce Éireann to enable it to upgrade those facilities and prioritise them, linked into regional development plans.