Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)

I do not understand why the private wires Bill is taking so long. It is two lines in the SI need to be removed and we need 5 megawatts to be removed from planning. It is very simple. Denmark has done it and the UK has done it. This needs to be done as fast as possible.

We have established a committee but we need to establish a multi-agency Dublin catchment control group with clear accountability. As we saw in Bantry with the river, the EPA and everyone went in but no one knew who was responsible for the overflow. Second, we need to publish the monitoring of the 390 overflows into Dublin Bay. At present, we are not monitoring nearly enough and if we do not monitor all the overflows, we do not know how much wastewater we will be treating. As I said about Intel, it needs to treat its own wastewater rather than leaving our taxpayers to fund it through the greater Dublin drainage strategy. The ringfencing of oysters - I like that the Tánaiste mentioned the oysters - needs to be done. Nature-based solutions are the way forward, backed by hydromorphological studies and seasonal public spending.

I also thank the Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW, Deputy Moran, for his visit and the work he has done on the flood defence in Clontarf. It is great to see Dublin Bay getting attention.

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