James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. Some people might find it shocking to know that 85% of all the water supply in the GDA comes from one source. It is definitely the case that we have been talking about the Shannon to Dublin pipeline for well over a decade at this point. This specific example I spoke to illustrates the urgent need for that critical infrastructure project, which, let us not deny, will cost several billions of euro. That is why the Government has taken a decision to ensure that the priority, when it comes to capital investment, will be infrastructure. It may be that wastewater treatment plants and water pipelines are not the pretty things, as it were, with shiny red bows on them, but they are absolutely essential to delivering our most pressing need, which is housing.

It would be remiss of me, in the context of wastewater treatment plants, not to mention, in my own backyard, the Ringsend wastewater treatment plant, which has received record levels of investment after long years of pursuing it, and fines and everything else, with more to come. There is an aspect of that I would like Uisce Éireann to respond to me on, which is the modernisation of how it manages wastewater tanks during storms. The impact of that, especially on Sandymount Strand, is it makes areas no-go for swimming. The water quality is such that it is one of the few beaches in the Dublin area where people cannot swim. There must be a more modern way in which we can manage storm outflows than simply throwing that untreated treatment straight into the water that is going directly into the UNESCO biosphere. I thank the Minister of State for the response.

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