We all know Irish Water was established by a previous Government, and we were told the primary reason for its establishment was so it could borrow off-balance-sheet to invest in critical infrastructure. Unfortunately, this is not happening. A number of weeks ago, I raised the high number of water outages in the past 12 months, particularly with regard to Athlone. This morning, there were water outages throughout the town of Athlone. It is a huge inconvenience for businesses and residents. When will critical investment be made by Irish Water in water infrastructure in Athlone? What contingency measures does Irish Water have in place to ensure businesses are not severely discommoded as a result of this?

I thank the Deputy for the question. It is somewhat hypocritical questioning how we fund Irish Water and have security of funding for Irish Water, given that certain Members of the House and certain parties in the House canvassed to remove a very important domestic funding stream for Irish Water. That question has been settled and in settling the question the Government made a serious commitment to funding from the central Exchequer of more than €8 billion over the next ten years for strategic water infrastructure for Irish Water. This investment is being made every year. Yesterday, Irish Water gave a presentation to me on its plans to make sure we have sufficient capacity in the system for the next ten years given the challenges we face. As a result of this, we see water outages, unfortunately, in some parts of the country. We also have to increase capacity for the treatment of water. We know coming off the back of last summer the serious drought we had and the impact it had on water courses and water reserves. A huge amount of investment is happening and I can get details on the specific problems the Deputy has raised to him later today.