The South Down MLA was responding to John O’Dowd’s comments on The View last night (21 November), where he expressed that NI Water’s funding model is ‘fit for purpose’ and rejected evidence from the construction sector that overstretched water infrastructure is preventing thousands of new homes from being built.

Mr McMurray has said: “It is deeply frustrating to see the Infrastructure Minister burying his head in the sand over NI Water’s funding, despite the overwhelming evidence on the devastating impact that chronic underinvestment in our water infrastructure is having on our economy, housing and environment.

“NI Water has explicitly stated that its investment plans are being held hostage by its funding arrangements and expert after expert has come forward in recent weeks to plea for some creative thinking to address the crisis facing our water infrastructure.

“In that context, it is very disappointing to hear the Minister claim that the funding model works and treat developer contributions as some sort of panacea for housebuilding, when in all likelihood all that policy would do is increase the price for families when they’re buying a home.

“Alliance published our own blueprint for fixing Northern Ireland’s water and wastewater infrastructure weeks ago. We called for a mutualised model to allow NI Water to borrow, along with a wider suite of proposals to put the body’s funding on a sustainable footing and support it to deliver desperately needed investment.

“I would urge the Minister to take heed of these ideas, rather than continuing to downplay the crisis facing our water and wastewater infrastructure.”

You can view our full policy document 'In Deep Water: The Alliance Party's Plan to Fix Northern Ireland's  Broken Water and Wastewater Infrastructure' here: https://assets.nationbuilder.com/allianceparty/pages/15526/attachments/original/1729600319/In_deep_water.pdf?1729600319