Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Interestingly, the primary reason the European Commission initiated the infringement proceedings was because when Fine Gael took office in 2011, it slashed the capital budget for wastewater treatment plans. Prior to that, particularly when John Gormley was Minister, the investment was between €200 million and €300 million on an annual basis. When Fine Gael took office with Labour, it was slashed to figures such as €150 million and €124 million. Clearly, the reason we are now facing potentially millions of euro of fines is because Fine Gael slashed the funding to those projects. What I am looking to know and what was not in the answer the first time around is, year on year from here onwards, exactly how much is being spent on tackling the 38 agglomerations in breach of EU law?

The Environmental Protection Agency has identified 127 priority locations, including the 38, where they feel there could be future breaches of EU law. What is the plan? Specifically what is the level of capital investment in those, year on year from now to 2021?

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