Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was in construction for years. I did sewerage and water works so I know what we are talking about here. I am very frustrated on behalf of Mr. Coskeran. I can now see some part of the picture of where the county council is coming from but I have a number of questions. The DPIs categorises estates according to the number of residential units. Category three estates contain under 50 residential units and category four estates contain under five residential units. Mr. Coskeran had five homes. The council would have been aware of this a number of years ago. When the circular came out from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government for the only tranche of moneys for the DPIs, why was Mr. Coskeran's one not applied for? What I am trying to find out is who has really messed up here? Mr. McGrath stated earlier that it was a failed transition from the council to Irish Water. Before the municipal councils, the county councils and the town councils were the local experts when it came to water connections and water repairs. That is one cock up, we will call it.

I refer to the category four estates. I am trying to get to who is really responsible here because this came out under the framework for the multi-annual DPIs. The council will not even be able to apply for this because if Mr. Coskeran's estate falls under the under five residential units, it is on the tipping point. Given the likely limited public or water environment impact of a small-scale treatment system of legacy DPI estates, local authorities are not being asked for bids for them in the current funding cycle. That means that even if funding for Mr. Coskeran's estate had been applied for, it probably would have met resistance because it was on right on the button with five houses.

I need to know who is responsible for this. The witnesses' hands seem to be tied but they seem to be tied for a very long time. There seems to be no cohesion between Irish Water and the councils. Is it the Department that has messed up here? Even if we get an answer to that question, the biggest problem here is that this has been going on for years. There are five families in homes in that estate. I cannot understand how we have to come to this point over a number of years of back and forth and yet it is the families of those five homes who are suffering and they are suffering at a cost. I will not get into the property tax. If the estate is not taken in charge, is it classed as a derelict estate? Are they being charged for property tax that they should not be paying? There are many questions here but I do need that one answered.

I was going to ask why the DPI was not applied for but now I can see the reason. That points the finger at the Department. Was Irish Water ever contacted when this situation came up to inform it of the fact that work on a connection to this estate was being blocked? That is one question.

I will go back to my second question. Who in the witnesses' opinion is responsible for the mess here? I will move on to my third question, although I know it was stated in the conclusions. Going back to the last petitions committee, there were five separate entities involved in inland fisheries coming up with five different plans for one dam on a river. We brought them all into the committee and they sat down together. The suggestion from the committee was that the five entities came up with a single plan that all could sign off on. Why is there such a disparity between the council, Irish Water, which I am not a fan of, and the Government? We should not even be here. This should be a very simple thing but from the statement, I feel that Irish Water is hiding behind one mess because it is all about granting additional money. A substantial amount of money was given out in the first tranche - €6 million in 2019, €10 million in 2020 and €12 million in 2021. That is handy money for a few estates.

Who has really messed up here? Why did the council not apply for funding under the multi-annual developer provided water services infrastructure resolution programme in 2019 if it was aware of Mr. Coskeran's estate? I reiterate my second question. Who does the council believe is responsible for this mess?