Gabrielle McFadden (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Chair for allowing me to substitute for Senator Conway. I support Irish Water in what it is endeavouring to do. The Government recently launched Project Ireland 2040, which is planning for the future. For too long, successive Governments batted problems away. We built houses and transport systems where we needed them when we had population explosions, etc. I welcome that we are now actually planning for the future.

This project is part of the process of planning for the future. It is a very good project and I have no issues with it. I would appreciate it if the witnesses could talk me through the route. Irish Water's engagement with landowners has been very good and I would like to hear more about it from them. I would also like to hear more about the funding of the project in its entirety. It is important that it would not start and stop after a particular point.

On the point raised by Deputy Ó Broin, An Bord Pleanála is an independent entity and it carries out independent assessments. Its assessment will reveal any problems that exist. I do not expect it to find any.

I thank Ms Kennedy for appearing before the committee. I am not a member of this committee and so I am unaware of the ins and out of how we got to today. Why did Kennedy Analysis carry out an analysis on this project? What was its motivation for that? All written reports require data. I would like to know from where the data used by Kennedy Analysis came because I do not see references to it. The report it has produced criticises Irish Water for the data it has used but I do not know from where Kennedy Analysis obtained its data. I would love to know that.

I will make a parochial comment. All of Ms Kennedy's opening statement related to Dublin. There is more to the country than Dublin. The representatives from Irish Water discussed the midlands. I am parochial because Mullingar and other areas in County Westmeath are included in that. I would love to know why Ms Kennedy only speaks about Dublin and does not refer to the rest of the country.