I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I appreciate there are concerns but I would say to all public representatives of all parties that we need to imbue in our nation a sense of strategic direction. Historically, we got it right in terms of utilities. That underpinned inward investment into this country and economic development without question. We are at a tipping point now in respect of whether we are prepared to make the big leaps forward and to underpin, for future generations, basic utilities for economic development and for the very basic supply of water itself. We acknowledge there is a housing crisis. Water will enable us to build more houses. If we do not get this done, there will be thousands and thousands of houses we cannot build. Moving on to the core issue, alternative options have been examined. The midlands will benefit enormously from this and the midlands needs development. People are advocating for new cities, for Athlone and so on. If we do not do this, people can forget about all of that. This is essential. I accept one thing, and I have said this to Irish Water. There needs to be a comprehensive communication approach to explain to people on the ground the benefits and how it will not impact on areas of importance to bed and breakfasts, hotels and businesses that depend on the amenity and recreational value of the Shannon, and anglers and so on. Desalination was looked at, as were groundwater sources, new reservoirs, additional abstraction from other rivers and further leakage reduction. All of those were fully assessed. Each was found to be insufficient to meet the scale of long-term demand, did not provide the required resilience or carried significantly higher environmental or cost impacts. Leakage rates are coming down. Uisce Éireann has reduced water leakage from 49% to 36% nationally and 37% to 30% in Dublin, driven by a €2 billion investment in the network, including leakage reduction, over the past decade. It is important to remember the level of the Shannon and its flow are currently monitored and managed within a standard band by the ESB as part of operations at Ardnacrusha. Uisce Éireann is working with the EPA and the ESB and is clear this will not compromise the ecology of the Shannon or water services for local communities. Extensive preparation and studies have been undertaken and Uisce Éireann will continue to monitor the project during and after its construction. I was told by Irish Water representatives, when I met them two weeks ago on this and other issues, that any impact on local communities will be negligible. We are very conscious of kayakers, anglers and those who use it for amenity.

Sentiment score: 0.12

I could not agree more. It is something that has annoyed me a bit. I have been talking to various Ministers. We have to incentivise rain harvesting for non-drinking purposes and there are a lot of easy ways of doing that. We are all waiting for the summer. Hopefully, we will get a bit of sun. If we get the inevitable banning of utilisation of water for the garden or whatever, we will all eat our hat, given the amount of rain that has fallen over the past number of months. The Deputy is absolutely correct on that. I will make a general point. Ireland is a small enough country. Many of our people and families are living in the midlands or in Dublin. Protecting their future is what we are about here. I am not saying the Deputy is doing this but I hope people do not use this politically or electorally. There is a lot of infrastructural stuff we cannot get done. There was a Deputy in the House recently who had legitimate concerns about a gas generation station, a solar farm and a wind farm - all three. I am left asking the question: how do we switch the light bulb on if we do not do something?

Sentiment score: 0.03