I welcome to the Distinguished Visitors Gallery Sinéad McCann, who is in our committee secretariat and her guests. They are welcome. I thank them for being here and I thank Sinéad for all her work. I hope she gets a good break. I call Senator McGahon.

I ask for a debate about Irish Water and our water infrastructure when we come back to this House in September. I ask because of an issue I raised previously in this House over the past two years, which is now quite serious in my home town of Dundalk, a town of 42,000 people, where the water has been absolutely rotten on many occasions. It is brown throughout the day for a huge number of people across the biggest town in this country. Over the past two weeks, I have collected evidence. I have more than 180 examples of homes affected. This creates a range of issues, affecting people trying to bathe young babies and elderly people who cannot use the drinking water and are spending money on bottled water. The excuses from Irish Water simply have not been up to the standard I would expect from such a body. This has happened every summer for the past three years. This summer in particular it is exceptionally difficult. There never seems to be a proper solution in place from Irish Water. We should have a debate about general water infrastructure in September because it is not on that a town of such a size - 42,000 people - has dealt with this issue every summer for the past three years. I know it is the same in other towns and villages. We have to come up with a solution because people continuously having to buy bottled water is not it. I would appreciate if we could have that debate at some stage in September when we come back.

I raise yet again rural housing guidelines. I have said it time and time again. I printed off all of the times I spoke in this Seanad in relation to rural housing. For five years, we have been told they are in the making and they will be published in five, six or seven weeks' time. Nothing has happened. It is continually raised with me.

I spent the last few weeks touring around the country and meeting practitioners of planning, including local government planners and our city and county councillors. I was in three different counties last week and all the people I met asked me what was going on in relation to the rural housing guidelines. They asked me why it was the case that their sons and daughters and constituents could not get planning permission to build a home on their lands. These are people who are involved in farming, quarrying, forestry, etc. They have demonstrated an economic need in respect of these rural constituencies. I raised this matter in this House with the Leader in the run-up to the European elections. We seem to be being continually told that these guidelines are coming.

Today, we are looking at this legislation and I will be raising this matter during the next two or three days again. I ask all Senators, from all parties and none, to put the pressure on to get an exact commitment concerning what is happening with rural housing. It is not a question of whether it will or will not happen. We are constantly being told and politicians are constantly telling their constituents and local representatives that this is happening. Why is it not happening? After all these years, why can we not get a commitment in this regard? Is the Minister committed to rolling out reasonable rural housing guidelines to enable people all over this country to live and to work and to be supportive of their extended family and of their principal farmland economic activities?

This is an important matter. For some reason, though, there seems to be a clog in the system. It has been suggested to me that we should be careful what we wish for. It may be because there are differences and some parts of the Government do not want this to happen, but this is not enough of a reason to do nothing about it. I am getting a strong and clear message from our city and, more importantly, our county councillors, who are asking what is happening in the principal Houses, the Oireachtas, where the legislation should happen. I ask that when we come back we have a debate on this matter. In the meantime, I ask the Cathaoirleach and everybody else with contacts in the Government, and clearly there are these contacts, if we can progress the delivery of rural housing guidelines that will allow people to live on the land they were born to or inherited and have a right to be on.