David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response and I concur with his views on water conservation. We should take whatever measures are necessary to encourage people to conserve water because there is an enormous cost to the State in making sure that people have good quality water. We must ensure that any mistreatment or misuse of water is dealt with properly. At the same time, we must also accept that most of the waste is caused by the system itself. If the average leakage, on a county by county basis, is 36% then that is where the real problem lies and that is one of the fundamental points being made by my party.

We want to ensure there is enough investment in water infrastructure to deal with that. The amount provided for in the capital programme for 2012 in respect of water infrastructure was reduced by ¤100 million.