Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Deputy about looking forward. However, I did not raise the issue. It was the Deputy who raised the issue of previous Governments, and I wished to clarify that we are taking action now. This matter must be addressed: it is as simple as that. It is not good enough that this still happens in 38 areas in Ireland. Irish Water was established to fix that and it is fixing it. The money has been set aside for this, but it must go through the proper planning process and get community acceptance. Given the urgency of these projects I have no doubt that community acceptance will be easier to achieve than on other projects, but Irish Water must go through that. That is democracy and the right way to do it.

Naturally, Irish Water will try to progress through the planning process as quickly as it can. It has been asked to do that by the local authorities and by the Government. The primary function of Irish Water is to provide clean, safe drinking water to its customers and to treat and return wastewater safely to the environment. That is not happening in this case and that is why action is required. In providing these critical services Irish Water plays a role in enabling social and economic growth and in protecting the environment and the health and safety of the public. Irish Water has developed a long-term investment perspective to address strategically the deficiencies in the public wastewater system. It is optimising investment decisions to ensure that it utilises scarce capital by making investments that deliver the best possible improvements for communities.

Building water treatment plants and upgrading or building sewerage networks necessarily will require significant investment. Irish Water's capital investment plans for 2014 to 2021 have identified an investment of over €5.5 billion. Some €1.25 billion of this investment will be in improving wastewater infrastructure quality overall, including the required investment in the Castletownbere and Castletownshend schemes. Completion of these projects will mark a hugely important milestone in protecting the environment in both locations, particularly the quality of water in Bantry Bay and Castlehaven harbour. I look forward to those projects being completed soon.

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