Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Young people have suffered the most as a result of Covid in the context of education, employment and housing. We now have to deal with that. There is a requirement for a new deal for young people as we emerge from Covid. That is what we absolutely need to do. I believe in home ownership. I believe in supporting home ownership initiatives. I am not clear that Sinn Féin does, for example. I just do not get that sense at all from any of its commentary or policy plans.

In terms of Deputy Boyd Barrett's point in respect of water, the report out this morning shows that 96% of bathing waters were classified as meeting or exceeding the minimum standards. A total of 111 bathing waters were classified as excellent in 2020, which is up from 107 the previous year. The bathing waters expert group has been asked again to see what we can do to improve that even further. River water quality is a real problem for the country and the EPA has published a number of studies on that, which we need to be very attentive to and deal with. That is why I am very impatient that we get going on a number of measures that can reduce the pollution of water quality in rivers. We need to look at the bathing situation in Dublin, Dún Laoghaire and other areas, particularly after heavy rainfall. Again, the €1.4 billion investment in water infrastructure is designed to deal with that. I believe in treating raw sewage. It should not be going into the waterways. There is a very extensive plan to get more treatment plants in place to treat the water so that people can enjoy the amenity of water in urban environments as well as, of course, in rural environments.

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