Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive answer. I appreciate that he understands the urgency of the matter and I am pleased he will look into it. I will make a quick comment before asking two follow-up questions.

The night-time refilling of water tankers, mentioned by the Minister, is becoming less frequent. The water tanks in areas not getting any water during the day were filling up at night. At least, those residents had some water for sanitation, etc., during the day. Since last Friday, however, that has stopped happening every night. As a result of the failure of the water tanks to refill at night, some houses are not getting water for several days at a time. I wanted to let the Minister know about this.

While it is great that water tankers have been made available, it has been pointed out to me that more could be done. Some of those who have to walk long distances to get water to bring back to their houses have impaired mobility. Can a means of distributing water other than by water tankers be found to make the interim problem a little less difficult? I do not know whether that is possible.

I seek confirmation of an aspect of the Minister's response that I did not understand. Did he say work was not taking place to deal with the algae problem? Did he say that work was planned in that regard? Is it the case that work on the problem is ongoing as a matter of urgency and that additional work is being planned?

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