Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I again thank the Deputy and echo what he said about Uisce Éireann staff on the ground. The rate at which they respond to leaks is extraordinary. They are on the ground straight away, repairing leaks and for some of them it is almost all they do. I guess that comes back to the Deputy's point about a proper strategy for replacing old pipes and longer lengths of old pipes. We mentioned a few areas where they are replacing up to 3 km or 4 km pipes. That needs to be the strategy because the amount of money, resources and workforce hours it takes to repair these leaks is not productive. I completely agree that is a long-term strategy. I take the Deputy's point about Kildare as well. It is a great county with the population increasing, and probably due to increase further, so there has to be a long-term strategy rather than this ad hoc response as one might describe it. There are plans, relating to the water supply project in the eastern and midlands region, to take water from Parteen and Tipperary. That might be a while away, but we need to see that progress and to proceed as far as is possible.

Coming back to Uisce Éireann, its budget is now €2.2 billion. I mentioned that as Ministers and Ministers of State we have no say directly in terms of the operation of Uisce Éireann and the prioritisation of projects, etc., but we provide the budget. It is a significant budget of €2.2 billion with more to come through Apple funding, etc. The message needs to be sent loud and clear to Uisce Éireann. Whether it is water supply or water treatment, if we are serious about dealing with the housing crisis and ramping up construction of houses, then we need to have that infrastructure in place. Uisce Éireann has a body of work to do. We have put the funding behind it. It now needs to start making sure these projects come to fruition, that we can see houses being built and that areas like Kildare have basic water supply.

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