Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Again, I wholeheartedly agree about a public awareness campaign. Perhaps a lack of public awareness has led to the previous low uptake. A circular will be sent by the Department next week and a question and answer section on the schemes will be available on the Department's website. The Deputy is correct. We will lead off on a new cycle of the river basin management plan early next year, which will be ambitious. It is important that it is. We know from the most recent EPA report that we have a significant problem as regards water quality. As I said, I will furnish the information in tabular form to the Deputy in which it can be seen that the uptake of the grants is inconsistent across the country. There seems to be a high uptake in the north west but the problems are universal, depending on ground types. It has a significant impact on water quality and, as the Deputy said, climate change is impacting negatively on this as well.

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