I want to raise with the Tánaiste today the lack of wastewater treatment capacity in the town of Kanturk in north Cork. We are very lucky to have five or six sites in development at the moment, with a number of houses being developed right across the town. We have a number of other applications for planning permission which do not have a wastewater connection at the moment. I believe there is a plan to install a modular wastewater treatment plant alongside the wastewater treatment plant that is currently in place in Kanturk. That will allow for an increase in the population equivalent, PE, in the wastewater treatment plant, which would allow for ca. 230 more houses to be built. I bring this to the floor of the Dáil today in the hope that we could push it forward in the future. Could the Tánaiste give me a response?

I thank Deputy O'Shea very much for raising this matter on behalf of his constituents. My understanding is that the Kanturk wastewater treatment plant has provision in the current RC4 investment cycle. There are plans to initiate a wastewater treatment plant upgrade project. This project is currently at stage 1, where Uisce Éireann develops the project objectives and outcomes and indicative range of costs. This work will continue through the year and I hope we can get this to the business case stage as quickly as possible. More generally, we need to see this moving quickly in terms of water and wastewater. One of the big focuses the Minister, Deputy Chambers, has been working on is that where we have identified need and provided funding, we reduce the regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles in terms of the length of time between the identification of a project and its delivery. Perhaps this is an example of such. As this business case is developed, I will keep in close contact with the Deputy to see that we can deliver the project as quickly as possible.