Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I have spoken to Uisce Éireann representatives about this and they have a national mapping exercise already. With the best will in the world, if we want to build 50,000 houses per year and if we give an extra couple of billion euro to Uisce Éireann over the coming years, it will have to concentrate that spend on the big cities and big areas of population. Therefore, for smaller villages and towns we need an alternative system which allows for the provision of sewage treatment plants by the builder in accordance with detailed specifications by Irish Water, which has agreed to this now. It is my understanding that this will happen. That would help the Askeatons and Cloughjordans of this world and all of those who have been waiting for quite some time. If we look at the enormity of the investment required for every village in the country, we will see that it cannot be done centrally by Irish Water alone. The capacity just does not exist to do it.

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