Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. I had a number of things to say, so I will shorten the first part. I wish to congratulate the Minister on the work he is doing. He is doing immense work. It seems to me that those who criticise him do not have any interest in actually solving the problems that the Minister is trying to address. I wish to compliment him on that.

We need to get residential construction up and running as quickly as possible. I am hearing from people who are experiencing problems in respect of mortgages running out, and who are then applying for mortgages again on the back of that. I have also heard from people who are in rented accommodation and had agreed to move into housing that was about to be built or was almost built, and which has been slowed down.

I will be parochial on one issue. I want to thank the Minister and his officials for agreeing to give an extra €1 million to Clonmel in European Regional Development Fund funding for the first phase of the redevelopment of Kickham Barracks. That means that the project will be ready to go once construction gets up and going again. It is hugely important to the town. I ask the Minister for his support in the announcement in a couple of weeks' time - or whenever it is made - for Clonmel.It is a huge investment of possibly €58 million coming from the Department for phase 2 of Kickham Barracks and the town centre at Dowd's Lane and Bulmers.

On a point the Minister might be able to touch on, a White Paper is to be published soon on Irish Water. When will it be published? There is a real opportunity to have a better interaction between the councils and Irish water. As the Minister knows, councillors now find it very difficult to have interaction with Irish Water. We need to realign Irish Water and county councils with the development plans so that those plans align with each other, and not just have one on growth and one on environmental issues. They need to be aligned as we move forward.