John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. However, the issue before us is specifically the short-term issues that have occurred directly as a result of the severe weather. The latter part of the Minister's response dealt with the longer term and matters such as infrastructure. The challenge facing us today is how we repair the damage in the short term in order to get back to the water levels we had this time last week. A distinction should be made between those works which need to be done and the longer-term capital works to rectify the leaking pipes across the greater Dublin area, which are 80 years old as the Minister noted. There is short-term work that needs to be done, however, and for the 1.2 million people affected in the greater Dublin area, the Minister's answer has not addressed the timescale. If there are to be restrictions, the Minister must ensure that they are not only lifted to bring pressure back but to bring water back to families who are leaving their houses in the morning in order that there is a flow of water from the taps. They need the information on what is happening. The Minister's response looked at the longer term more than the here and now. I urge him to ensure that additional funding is made available to Irish Water to deal with this short-term issue.

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