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

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The Deputy will appreciate that I am not responsible for, and do not have detailed knowledge of, every area in the country in respect of water supply and water quality, but I accept that if a particular district is 16 months without a consistent sustained water supply, that is not acceptable. That issue should have been addressed by now, but I will have to get a report from Irish Water on its perspective on this, what the challenges and problems are and why the issue in Fedamore or Kilteely has not been resolved.

It has to be said that Irish Water has made a great deal of progress across the country. The allocation for 2021 is €1.4 billion. There is continuing investment in Irish Water itself as a utility, to continue to expand treatment plants, replace pipes and improve water supply. In many respects, the fact that €1.4 billion in capital has been allocated this year, and there were similar amounts over previous years, illustrates the scale of the challenge confronting the country in respect of water infrastructure. Given the economic development and expansion in the country and the increase in population, this is a significant challenge which the utility, acting on our behalf, must address. We have to marry that with the housing issue, because the housing issue is inextricably bound up with water supply and the speed with which we can get water infrastructure in place to facilitate housing developments. The constant refrain we hear from people in the housing sector is that they would prefer much faster connections and so forth. Water and housing are inextricably linked.

In addition, the quality of water is very important. There are many pollutants, as the Deputy knows from the EPA study this week. The problems we have were in its urban wastewater report, which was published a few weeks ago. Again, there are issues. With regard to the local authority, that speaks to the need for proper wastewater treatment facilities, which require very significant investment as well. All of us have to be clear about our responsibilities in terms of nutrients going into the waterways and so forth. The Deputy's key point is that Irish Water must deal with the issues in Fedamore and Kilteely. The Government's commitment is to continue to fund Irish Water's capital programme. Last year, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform significantly increased expenditure for Irish Water given the challenges it was facing. We will continue to support Irish Water in that regard.

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