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

The pilot scheme informed the framework of how to judge and place various estates in order of priority. That was the reason we had the pilot scheme. The framework was developed and every local authority was involved in that framework. There were workshops on it as well to help to inform them when they placed estates and projects on the priority list.

The Deputy specifically referred to Cork. The Cork city area did not have any estates with DPI infrastructure requirements. Cork county submitted nine individual bids, including two for the four DPI estates at Crossbarry. The council bid addresses 11 estates overall. In it, the council estimated the cost of sustainably resolving the DPI of these estates at just over €1.56 million. The expert panel is to be formed in the next couple of weeks and it will use the framework and the criteria that are set out. The Deputy is correct that there are three categories. The panel will make the calls on that. Naturally, every local authority was asked to detail why it was putting forward various estates and the priorities behind that. I expect that is all included in the applications and the expert panel will judge. We will try to prioritise key areas. Public health is a major part of the framework as well.

To be clear, the framework funding that was set aside is ring-fenced over the three years and will be spent accordingly. It covers from mid-2018 to 2021. That money is still there and its purpose is to fund this infrastructure. The infrastructure is there since the 1990s and early 2000s.

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