Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

Regarding how this manifests itself, there are two waste-water treatment plants in my constituency, but one straddles north and south Kildare. Osberstown is one and the initial paperwork came to the Department in 2002. I know the Minister has responded to me on this before, but we are now starting to be contacted by people in the construction industry who are saying that they now have no option other than to cease building, since they will not secure planning permission because the land cannot be serviced. They will get a refusal based on the application being premature, since the service has not been provided. If the reason was that there would be public private partnerships, it has had an incredible impact on the private sector by virtue of people in the construction industry not being able to build houses or industrial sites. That is an extremely important factor.

It seems that we have a system of crisis management unique to Ireland. We tend not to believe that something will happen until we see it. For example, I have seen entire housing estates in such places as Kilcock built because of a shortage of houses and a need to give people a roof over their heads. Some of those estates are on timers that kick in at 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. to allow people to use water. This is all rather redolent of the Third World. I know that a new system is to come on stream within a few weeks in that case, but some of those housing estates now look mature. They were not built today or yesterday. They are fully occupied and people have settled in.

A mismatch between the provision of services and the occupation of houses creates a problem. People do not care where the water comes from as long as there is a safe and abundant supply, and the same is true of the reliability of sewage treatment plants. Members of local authorities see the mismatch regarding the level of house-building and industrial activity and one knows that things are on a knife-edge. It is only when that happens that people ask how it was allowed to come to pass. We must do things differently to prevent this situation recurring.

"Design, build and operate" public private partnerships complicate matters and the future is very uncertain if one cannot guarantee that such a vital service will be provided. The lack of delivery at Osberstown has certainly proven a disaster for Kildare, since it has slowed everything down.

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