Hear, hear.

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this important issue on behalf of the people of County Wexford. Last night, I met online with a number of people who have been affected by this issue. We are aware that more than 50 people have been affected by the Gorey outbreak. These are confirmed cases of illnesses associated with it. I ask the Minister of State to expedite the report of the independent investigation and, as quickly as possible, give people full confidence in the water supply from t…

I welcome the Minister of State's response. The review that has been carried out must be published as soon as possible. The most important message that must go out from this Chamber today - I repeat the words of Irish Water and Wexford County Council in this regard - is that the water supply is safe to drink at this time. I become very concerned when Members of this House have personal vendettas against the management of Wexford County Council. This is not a new attack by the Deputy opposite on the management of We…

I have known Tom Enright, who is chief executive Wexford County Council, for many years. He is a fine public servant. I know that there has been a previous attack on their director of services, Tony Larkin, who is another fine public servant.

It is completely absurd that a Member of this House-----

That a Member of this House would use parliamentary privilege to attack public servant-----

I have one message. The Deputy opposite went over time. Fair is fair. I ask the Minister of State to indicate that the public water supply from the Creagh Plant to Gorey, County Wexford, is safe to drink. That is the most positive message. I do not want to echo the negativity of some Members of the House; I just want to make sure that the water is safe to drink.

Can I call for a walk-through vote?

I want to point out that the Sinn Féin party abstained on that last vote.

I wonder why the Sinn Féin party has left the building. Is there a fire we do not know about?

We have already gone there.

Deputy McGrath does not have the bottle left.

I ask the Minister about afforestation and its importance, specifically with regard to the Mackinnon report that was published in 2019.

I wish the three Ministers, Deputies McConalogue and Heydon and Senator Hackett, the best of luck. It is a privilege to be a Minister. I was a Minister of State for nine years. It is very strange for me to be asking the questions now to a Minister of State after nine years. I welcome the fact that the Minister of State is in the process of appointing an independent chair. I would like to bring her back to November 2019 when one of the headlines in the Irish Farmers Journal was that the lack of political priority fo…

I worked in None-So-Hardy nurseries in County Wicklow. I ask the Minister of State if at all possible in her busy schedule to visit it. Nearly every Minister with responsibility for forestry has visited None-So-Hardy in Wicklow. They have a base in County Wexford as well. If we are to encourage farmers to enter into planting forestry, they have to see that as a seamless process. If they see a process that has delays with decisions from inspectors and so on, they will not be encouraged to go into forestry. I know qu…

The Minister of State should forget about the rest and only answer my question.

That is great although I cannot take the credit for it.

This is disgraceful.

On a point of information, the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, Deputy Connolly, chaired over 60% of the debate tonight and I want to find out if she walked out in protest with the rest of the Independent Members. This is a very serious-----

It is a point of information.