I thank Independent Ireland for bringing forward the motion. Tá a lán rudaí sa tairiscint that I am go maith with and I think are good. It is important to highlight the issues that have been raised. I am not in agreement with a number of points towards the end of the motion, but broadly it is important. The fundamental questions we need to address are why Uisce Éireann is not working for people, why it is not providing the services and infrastructure that are needed to ensure housing is being delivered and, fundamentally, why it is not sufficiently addressing issues of leakage and poor water quality we know exist in respect of drinking water. People are still living with this issue across the country. There is also the question of the quality of water in our rivers and seas in respect of wastewater. As someone who swims regularly in Dublin Bay, even at the moment when it is freezing, after it rains we can see it is covered in scum. We know there are issues with capacity in the Ringsend treatment plant. We have capacity problems across the country in terms of the delivery of water and wastewater services and, fundamentally, housing. I do not believe that the Government fully takes on board the extent of the housing emergency we are in. I encourage the Minister of State to look at the website onemillionhomes.ie. I do not know whether he has come across it yet. Its information is based on CSO data. It states that there are 1.3 million people aged between 18 and 44 who are waiting to own their home but are instead stuck renting or living at home. The analysis on the website points out that people would be waiting a thousand years in Ballymun, in my constituency, to get keys to a home. In other places around the country, such as Ballyjamesduff in County Cavan, people will wait a hundred years to get the keys to their own home, as will people in Swinford, County Mayo. The website goes through town after town and place after place across the country where there is a generation aged between 18 and 44 who have no prospect of owning a home of their own, renting or living in a social home under the current housing delivery. The reality is that there have been eight months of consecutive decline in construction in the residential sector. This does not involve just the Minister and Minister of State. They are the current Ministers, but the seeds of this problem were laid decades ago. Over the past 20 to 40 years, we have followed a housing policy, and a policy more generally, of privatisation, relying on the market and not delivering and developing public capacity. It is incredible that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil say they are giving Uisce Éireann the funding it needs given that they denied it when it was actually needed and the work could have been done and investment provided. We are playing catch-up in terms of the infrastructure that is needed. Last year, we said Uisce Éireann needed €2 billion to get going. The Minister, Deputy Harris, said the Government was not sure and needed agreements, and the decision was delayed. I read the infrastructure report. One of the things identified in it, in terms of delays in delivery, did not involve planning, judicial reviews or other issues but, rather, the Government and State and the way they operate. The barriers are a lack of dedicated funding, which is still insufficient, and the systems in place to approve projects. The Minister of State is shaking his head. I assume he has read the infrastructure report.

Sentiment score: 0.03

It states very clearly that some of the key structural barriers to delivering infrastructure are Government approval of projects, the time it takes and the funding allocated. It is very clear that the systems the Government has set up are not delivering infrastructure quickly enough. That is the responsibility of the Government. The Minister of State can shake his head, but it is the Government's responsibility. It is a system that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have set up for decades. In terms of Uisce Éireann, there is an issue that these parties broadly do not believe in public utilities. It is about the market. Therefore, Uisce Éireann is left as a kind of commercial body that should deliver key public infrastructure, but does not have sufficient funding, as identified in the motion, to deal with leaks, water being of sufficient quality and infrastructure not being delivered for housing. It is not doing that now and there is no prospect of it doing so sufficiently. The frustrating aspect of this is that the Government has given billions away to developers, investor funds and fast food chains. Yet, our public infrastructure, which needs investment, is not given sufficient investment to ensure it addresses these problems in a reasonable timeframe. The timeframes set out are not reasonable. That is why we need a step-change in how we invest in our public water and wastewater infrastructure. I will raise a case related to infrastructure, specifically the fact that people who are trying to get services are not getting them. Niamh and her mother Petria have been without heating since before September 2025 and are waiting on repairs. Niamh first flagged this issue in my office in October of last year. Her mother is 84 years of age. They have been without heating and a functioning boiler. They were advised by workers who inspected the boiler that it needed to be replaced rather than repaired. I wrote to the SEAI, the Minister for Social Protection and Dublin City Council raising this issue. The SEAI provided some information about grants and warmer homes and warned about lengthy waiting times. However, it said it will take potentially 14 months from the date of application to the date of delivery. These kinds of waiting times for water and heat are not acceptable. It is a fundamental failure of our State that people are left freezing in their homes. I raise this case because I would like the Minister of State to take it up and see what he can do about it. I wrote to the community welfare officer in Finglas to follow up on the case. Niamh and Petria are waiting for this and I am concerned for their welfare. This is just one of many examples where the Government talks about economic growth in this country and the Taoiseach gets up in the Dáil and says the Opposition never talks about all of the great things the Government is doing when that is not the reality for too many people in this country. I was just in the audiovisual room listening to people with disabilities who cannot afford to heat their homes. These issues are connected because we have not developed a State that has funded our public services, including Uisce Éireann, city councils and county councils. This issue is directly connected to the motion because we have a State that does not deliver our public-----

Sentiment score: 0.06

The Minister of State can argue it is a stretch but-----

Sentiment score: -0.34

Yes, we are on water infrastructure and this relates directly to it. Why do we not invest sufficiently in our water infrastructure and why do we have these problems? It is not because Uisce Éireann is not doing all that it can because it is doing some work. It is not about needing to get developers in to do the work. The problem is we have a State that does not believe in public services and public utilities and is actually privatising them. I spoke to Irish Water as well and it is still doing public private partnerships and outsourcing the delivery and management of wastewater infrastructure to the private sector. This relates directly to the motion because it is a question on what type of public utilities and public infrastructure we are developing. I believe, and the evidence shows, that we are still not fully developing a public water and wastewater infrastructure that meets the needs of the economy and society. This connects back to a Government and to political parties that are still broadly neoliberal and centre right. They have an attitude towards public services that, while they will invest in them, they will not invest sufficiently to ensure people's needs are met. They still believe the market and private sector should be in there making profit where they can.

Sentiment score: 0.10