Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for the reply. This is a huge project with major implications for the midlands and in particular for Laois and Offaly in terms of long-term jobs and jobs in construction, and it is clearly the Government's preferred option. However, the reply the Minister of State just gave does not outline when a planning application will be made, when it will start construction or when we are likely to have completion. Is Dublin City Council, as the lead authority, pushing it? A 12-month monitoring stage to collect data is required before it can start at all. Finance needs to be accessed and legislation is required, as the Minister of State will know, to establish Irish Water. I understand that legislation has implications for this project.

Where is it at and where is it going? I understand very little has happened on the project in the past two years. It needs to go through various phases, including the planning phase.

The Minister of State has just outlined that if this started tomorrow morning it would be seven full years before it would be brought on stream, that is, 2021. I assume that it will not start for some time yet since Dublin City Council is only now in the process of working out how to hire consultants for some of the studies and the planning phase. We need something firmer in terms of a start-up date.

We have been told that Dublin and parts of the east coast are running out of water. I realise this is partly due to leaks but this is what we are being told by the Minister of State and experts in the Department. It appears to me this project is on a go-slow. If the Minister of State is serious about going ahead with it, then it needs to be pushed on. My concern is that with all the toing and froing associated with the establishment of Irish Water this project has been left to one side.

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