Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will take the Deputies' concerns on board. As I said at the beginning of the reply, there is historical underinvestment in water infrastructure which is the reason we now have this major crisis. I will raise with the Minister the Deputy's concern around his lack of response to the crisis. Perhaps he might come back to the Deputy himself. While tackling the causes of beach pollution is a high priority for Government, it is important to note that the quality of Ireland's bathing water is generally very high with just over 93% of identified bathing water sites, or 128 of 137, meeting the minimum EU standards for sufficient water quality over the four year assessment period 2012 to 2015. Of those, 83%, or 114, were classified as either excellent or good water quality. I know we are not debating that but what the Minister is saying very clearly in his reply is that because of the historical underinvestment in water infrastructure, Irish Water has the major issue of playing catch up. I will raise the issues the Deputies raised with the Minister. I have taken notes and will ask the Minister to come back to them both on a one-to-one level.

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