I wish to bring to the Minister's attention a serious matter which recently impacted my constituents in Cork North-Central, in the areas of Ballyvolane and Dublin Hill. It is an area that was left five days without water, from Friday to Tuesday morning last. Despite continuously contacting Irish Water, constituents were given reference number after reference number, and Irish Water had no record of it by Monday morning. It was not submitted, from what we can ascertain, to the repair unit, and people were left without water. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. It is a regular occurrence in Cork city that people are being left without water or they are facing brown, dirty, filthy water that is not drinkable or usable.

Will the Minister and his Government now admit that Irish Water is a faceless organisation that is not customer-driven? Will they look at and explore the possibility of returning water services to the local authorities, such as Cork County Council and Cork City Council?

It is because of the kinds of issues the Deputy referred to that the Minister, Deputy Chambers, will be looking at what additional funding can be made available to meet the energy and water needs that our country has and in order to deal with those kinds of issues we know are developing across many communities at the moment. I do not agree with the description the Deputy has offered of Irish Water and I am certain that if we were to begin a process of disentangling Irish Water and bringing it back into local authorities, after having spent many years going in the other direction, that would only add to our problems and not make them any easier. I appreciate the upset that would have been caused to the Deputy's constituents by this. It demonstrates the need for us to invest more in our infrastructure and the work Irish Water is doing, which the Government is aiming to do.