Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. To refer to one point, I am delighted with the increase in the septic tank grants. That is good news. I take all the points the Minister of State made about investment. He said €100 million is available to Uisce Éireann and that is now being invested in smaller clusters of settlements in smaller schemes to provide wastewater treatment facilities specifically. There are also other water schemes.

My sources still tell me that the issue is the number of people who can get into the scheme. When the Minister of State was voting in the Dáil, I had the opportunity to get back to the person who first brought this issue to me. I was told it hangs still on the fact that smaller clusters cannot qualify. Perhaps the Minister of State could take that on board. Therein seems to be the nub of the problem, as it was identified to me anyway by a long-serving councillor. I thank the Minister of State.