James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I would like clarity regarding service connection. From time to time throughout the country service connections are made on a temporary basis to provide a supply to a new house, for example, until such time as a mains passes the house, a group water scheme is established or the local authority mains supply is extended. Service connection is something that is fairly loosely applied in many areas. If one has one's own independent water supply one can bring service connections to various parts of a farm, for example. In bygone days substandard piping was used. Anyone can make a service connection to a building site. Bringing it to such a site or to a landfill site, for example, tends to cause contamination of the water supply. The Minister of State might elaborate a little further.