Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

Donegal County Council has to monitor the entire county before it can secure approval to deal with its first priority and the problem is it takes time to monitor water loss throughout the county. A report can only be provided over a six-month period and not overnight. Seven times over the past two months, the pipes have burst in the Magheroarty area and people have been left without water. Is the Department flexible regarding this "no-brainer" in Donegal? This mains need to be replaced entirely and the Minister of State can ask any engineer, official or local authority or Oireachtas member about that. Everybody in Donegal who knows of this area recognises this. Will officials and the Minister be flexible and acknowledge this is an exceptional case and that phase 1 for the entire county does not need to be completed before dealing with this emergency? I appreciate the Minister of State may be unable to give a reply now but if there was willingness to examine this issue with a little flexibility, it would be beneficial. There would be no additional cost to the Revenue because, at the end of the day, this project will be undertaken. Unfortunately, under the existing rules, it will only be done when the entire county has been reported on. Between now and then, more residents in the area will be discommoded by the inevitable leaks in the system.