Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

We criticise ourselves all the time. By way of information, we are now the only country in the EU going way beyond the guidelines set down in EU directive. We are going down as low to the ratio of 1:1,000 of population for sewerage treatment facilities. That goes way beyond the EU directive and no other state in the EU has decided to do this. We decided to do this in the past 12 months because of the co-operation between the group water schemes and the local authorities. With the quality new technologies we have smaller, more efficient and cost-effective systems providing good water quality. It is also relevant to the Senator's point about hamlet developments as one moves to the next stage. Ireland is way ahead of all the EU directives in that regard.