Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

If the standards are not being met, Irish Water will have to go back. I have been to many towns. Our water supply is central not just in the context of our agricultural policy, our forestry policy and our river basins; it is also connected to our housing strategy and our housing policy. If one speaks to anyone across the country about the ability to build new housing, one will find that it is often to do with the wastewater treatment system.

In those towns, if that is a cause of the problem and there is expansion with which even the upgraded system cannot cope, then we will have to go back. We have to set a standard and reach it.

I will give a measure of progress, which is important, regarding the €1.6 billion that will be spent next year. We were in the European Court of Justice for failing to comply in relation to eight large urban areas. As I understand it, that €1.6 billion will go towards that. Two of those locations have been resolved, four will be resolved between 2023 and 2025 and the final two are scheduled to be completed before the end of this decade. That is just one area in which we are in contravention. We have to address first the areas in which we are held to account directly by the European courts. That is where the first response is but it cannot and should not end there.

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