Results 1,541-1,560 of 15,634 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I appreciate it is one water system, but does Ms Ryan have leakage rates for Dublin, either for the city or the county? There is quite a significant variation between Dublin city and the county in terms of the rates historically.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I thank the witnesses for the information provided so far. I will go back to a couple of the questions we did not have time to deal with in the first round, one of which was on developer-provided infrastructure, DPI. To pick up where the Senator left off, funding of €68.5 million had been provided from 2021 to 2025 to start getting at least some of those housing schemes upgraded and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: On that point, I wish to be clear in case I am mistaken. Funding of €68.5 million for digital public infrastructure, DPI, was announced in 2021 and was to run until 2025. What happened to that funding?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: That funding was for the local authorities to take the lead and to upgrade those plants.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Do the witnesses have any visibility of whether all of that money has been spent or how many of those schemes have now been connected to the Uisce Éireann network?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Is the approach now no longer to address this to the local authorities but to have Uisce Éireann do the full overall assessment, see what the overall cost is and have a roll-out programme?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: In those 500 or 600 estates, approximately how many homes are we talking about?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Am I correct in saying that Uisce Éireann can only spend money on taking in charge and upgrading those DPIs if funding is specifically agreed with the Government? If I, Senator Cummins or anyone else wants to make the case for funding, the first thing that has to happen is that a Government decision has to be taken in respect of an allocation of funding from which Uisce Éireann can...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Right now, there is no funding to deal with any of these bar what might be left with the local authorities.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will ask about wastewater treatment plants and the 73 priority locations that the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, raised in its most recent report at the end of last year. There are also ten agglomerations that are in breach of the urban wastewater treatment directive. Will the witnesses give us an update on progress in that regard? I emphasise that there has been progress. We...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: To go from 50 to ten is significant progress. A question we always ask relates to the remaining ten. In terms of the households impacted, what percentage is left to be resolved? The agglomerations can be different sizes and the wastewater treatment plants can impact larger and smaller populations. What percentage of impacted households or geographical areas remains to be dealt with? Are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: From their conversations with the Department, is it the witnesses' understanding that the Commission is satisfied with the rate of progress? The purpose of enforcement activity is to get improvement rather than to impose fines. Are the witnesses comfortable that we are on the right side of that trajectory with the Commission?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I have two more quick questions and the witnesses can come back to me at a later stage. Is there any update on the transition to the single utility? How many staff have transitioned across from the local authorities to Uisce Éireann? Are there any other outstanding issues in that regard? An issue I raised previously is whether the plan is to have some continued footprint of other...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: What is the final deadline for expressions of interest?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: It could be that I misheard. Did Ms Attridge say that approximately 2,500 full-time equivalent staff are currently covered by the service level agreement, SLA, and so far approximately 1,000 have expressed an interest? Is that a fair summary?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: Yes, they are covered by the SLA.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: I apologise, they would have previously been covered by the SLA.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: One thousand of that 2,500 have expressed an interest.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: What would have been Uisce Éireann's expectation or did Uisce Éireann have an expectation? Ms Attridge may remember that when this was originally discussed, one of the reasons Irish Water, as it was then, wanted to bring the SLA to a close earlier was that it felt there were approximately 1,000 more full-time equivalent staff than needed. The framework agreement has dispensed with...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Current Progress and Future Projections of Uisce Éireann Objectives: Uisce Éireann (18 Jun 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: There is a recruitment campaign-----