Ireland has one of the highest leakage rates of drinking water in Europe and the Dublin City Council area has one of the highest leakage rates in Ireland. Partly as a result of that, it is proposed to build a pipeline across Ireland to ship water from the River Shannon. That, obviously, would cause huge disruption to landowners, a huge cost to the economy and unforeseeable consequences for the environment. One of the main reasons given for not fixing the leaks in the Dublin area relates to interference with commercial activity on our streets. There is no commercial activity on the streets of Dublin at the moment. Is now not the time to fix the leaks in Dublin?

It may well be, and Irish Water has an increase in its capital budget for this year to carry out repairs and improvements in Dublin and throughout the country. It has been designated as essential construction, so it can go ahead with that.