Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank Mr. Gleeson and his team for the opening information. I have some high-level questions and again, if we do not get detailed responses in this round or subsequent rounds, it would be very helpful if Mr. Gleeson could furnish the committee with written updates. The first concerns the midlands east supply project. There has been a significant amount of coverage of it, the Housing Commission has referenced it, as did Mr. Gleeson in his opening statement. What most of us do not understand is what the delay is. It is a number of years since we expected the project to progress to planning permission. There were issues around water abstraction legislation and the fact that that has not been produced, so from Mr. Gleeson's understanding, exactly where is the project at and what are the obstacles to it progressing? That is the first part of the question.

The second is related to that. As far back as we raised this matter, the issue of the continuing high levels of leakage within the distribution systems of Dublin and the greater Dublin area continue to be a concern. If Uisce Éireann is going to spend €2 billion plus on the pipeline project, obviously we want to see those levels of leakage, in Dublin in particular, reduced. Can Mr. Gleeson give us an update on where that is at and where he expects the leakage reduction rate to fall to over the intervening years?

In terms of enforcement and particularly the issue of infringement of the urban wastewater treatment directive, obviously there has been progress. On Uisce Éireann's website there are those useful graphs showing the priority areas halving between 2017 to 2024, down to 73. That is positive but can Mr. Gleeson give us an update on progress with those? I am still concerned about the lack of compliance with its now ten agglomerations. Again, it has to be acknowledged that there has been significant progress in the reduction of that number from 40-odd some years ago. Can Mr. Gleeson give us a sense of whether those ten that are still non-compliant? Are they small or large, what populations are they covering and what is the progress on those?

On development-provided infrastructure, any countrywide information Mr. Gleeson can give us either in writing or here today would be welcome because that is a legacy issue that is of concern. As for the final two issues, we had a very interesting session with residential developers and utilities on alignment of capital programmes to ensure that Uisce Éireann's own capital programme, residential development in the public and private sectors and others are aligned.

The Housing Commission has made some specific recommendations, if I understand them right, with the view to try to better align those capital programmes. Has Uisce Éireann looked at that? Does the agency have a view on it at this stage? Is there any further update Uisce Éireann can give us on the move to the single utility with regard to the levels of transfer of staff from local authorities to Uisce Éireann and what the plans are to continue to have some level of footprint within the local authorities for utilising their depots, call centres and so on?