Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O'Meara and congratulate him on his election representing the people of Tipperary North. I wish him very well. The programme for Government contains a number of commitments in relation to this. The Deputy is right that housing is the biggest challenge that our country faces and it is the biggest priority that the Government intends to address. As he also rightly highlighted, there is a number of enablers to build housing. It is not just about housing construction capacity but also about water and wastewater treatment facilities. We are going to significantly increase the amount of money available to Uisce Éireann through the capital budgets that we will be allocating shortly. What we need to see in return is a willingness from Uisce Éireann to make sure that projects that are crucial to housing get the go ahead and that projects that might be seen as smaller in scale are also addressed. I will certainly write to the chief executive of Uisce Éireann about the projects Deputy O'Meara mentioned and ask him to meet with the Deputy.

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