Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There has been significant investment by the Government in Irish Water and much of that will, excuse the pun, trickle down into local rural communities. We see it as being vitally important that small-scale water and wastewater treatment plants are upgraded to meet the needs of local rural areas. The funding is directed through local authorities. They are responsible for the local road infrastructure, lighting etc. in these rural nodes we are discussing. That prioritisation falls back on to local elected members, who have an important role to play in ensuring funding is distributed equally in their urban areas and counties to enable rural areas to survive. From that perspective, the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, is saying he wants to enable this within development plans to ensure they reflect the rural node principles but also that we ensure we give capacity to our regional towns, smaller towns and villages such as some of the places the Senator mentioned in County Kilkenny. The funding streams come down to local level and how local authorities prioritise the funding and support for local infrastructure and services. These areas have to be serviced by many other agencies, as well as local authorities. We will come back to the Senator with a response if he is seeking more detail on those specific funding streams.