John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

——to meeting EU standards for drinking water and waste water treatment and to providing critical infrastructure that will ensure ongoing support for the economy. Good quality water and waste water services are vital for housing, industrial and commercial development. A recent Forfás report helps to identify key locations where improved water services will be needed to capitalise on potential investment in new jobs and services in the future. The record 2009 allocation means that the resources will be available to meet these challenges and to deal with the water services requirements of smaller towns and villages up and down the country.

This Exchequer support for water services is backed up by the greatly improved supervisory structures I have put in place to ensure an optimum return from the investment, both in terms of service to the consumer and environmental protection. I have provided the Environmental Protection Agency with the resources to ensure it can effectively carry out the new supervisory functions given to it under the drinking water regulations.

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