Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The first thing I would say is that the local authorities submitted their applications in September 2022. We are now gone 13 months and maybe in another two months we might have a decision. That is not the end of the story. It is only then that the local authorities will start the procurement of consultants, the design and the procurement of sites. We will probably see these treatment plants coming on stream in about five years' time if we are lucky. We need to tackle this issue as a national issue. We need to put in place a proper plan to see how we are going to provide the infrastructure for the future and tidy up the mess of the past, with all of these package plants that are not being serviced or maintained in our towns and villages.

I agree that the Croí Cónaithe scheme, which I am a great supporter of, is working. However, in Corofin, for instance, there are maybe one or two vacant properties in the village and we have the capability of building maybe 100 houses in that village. It is the same thing in Abbeyknockmoy and in Carrabane, which has two housing estates, a pub and a school. It is frozen. They are all frozen in terms of planning. They cannot get planning permission and the chances of them getting a municipal treatment plant within the very short period of three, four or five years is non-existent unless we have a strategic plan whereby every year we roll out so many of them, so there can be a steady stream of projects being carried out.

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