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

On the tenet of the Deputy's original question on assessment, I really believe that is the role of a county development plan. It assesses towns and villages with regard to the various infrastructural needs within them. The national development plan will be announced shortly. Funding for Uisce Éireann will be formed, modelled and moulded around this. This is very important also.

We have seen significant increased funding for Uisce Éireann. Deputy Clendennen is absolutely right that we need to start seeing a return for this increased investment and the increased funding of the utility. With regard to Edenderry, certainly we could look at some of these projects and designs taking anything between five and seven years, but for towns such as Edenderry and other towns of a similar size this is not good enough. We want to see houses built and delivered now. The interim solution in Edenderry is, once a design is finalised, to look at the potential of developer-led infrastructure which could then be connected to the new wastewater treatment plant. This is an opportunity and it could be rolled out as a model throughout the country if it worked.

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