Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

How much will be invested in infrastructure over the next several years? The biggest investment is in the installation of meters, the cost of which was underestimated and will be closer to €600 million than €500 million. We are taking money out of the National Pensions Reserve Fund to invest in water meters at a time when we have a crisis in homelessness. According to the Minister for Finance, these meters will not be used for conservation purposes until 2019 at the earliest. We are putting scarce resources into the ground when we have a crisis in homelessness. A summit on homelessness is taking place this evening. Should we not be investing in projects of that nature? The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has, for the third time this year, announced that he will roll out broadband to rural Ireland by 2020. Where is the Government's priority? If it wants to support businesses, broadband is critical infrastructure. This Government has prioritised the installation of water meters over critical services like broadband.

It claims there was no investment in water infrastructure in the last several years. That is simply untrue because figures will show that in the region of €5 billion was invested in infrastructure over that period. I can only speak for my constituency, which has a proper-----

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