Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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We have done that with other products. My final question relates to wastewater treatment plants. In the research carried out by the Oireachtas, it was stated that small wastewater treatment plants are not as efficient as large ones, which I am sad to hear. A reed bed has been fitted in Clonaslee, County Laois. It was opened by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government about six months ago and is working very efficiently. Something needs to be done in a number of other villages in Laois. There are 18 houses in the village of Emo which are served by what is really a large septic tank. We have an unusual settlement pattern in that we have many very small villages. We have many small villages with many small parts because there is one piece up here, another down there and somebody else got a piece half a mile away in another direction. We do not have that kind of concentrated settlement in villages that one would see in some other European countries, particularly Germany. This is something we need to get right in the next few years. Uisce Éireann is saying there is no cash and that all we can do now is put on a band aid. That is basically what it is saying for now. What is the most efficient and cheapest way of dealing with this problem?

In respect of combined sewers, the drive has been to separate them. It makes eminent sense that one would stop trying to get water out and try to deal with it on site because we all know that getting water out too quickly is causing the attenuation problems we are having. We have to put in artificial means to deal with this. Do the witnesses see completely separate sewers as the way forward so that storm and foul sewers would be completely separate?