Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

One of the problems I have had with local authorities is they write back and say they cannot take an estate in charge because Irish Water has not taken over the water services. When we then write to Irish Water, we find that the local authority has never been in contact with it about taking over the water services. These are estates that were built more than 15 years ago and before Irish Water was created.

A second problem is the lack of scrutiny by local authorities to ensure builders are following through in respect of complying with the terms of planning as regards putting in footpaths and a whole lot of services. Then we have builders applying for planning when they have not finished off the previous estate.

Another issue is the stand-alone facilities, where an awful lot of these were done pre-2008, the builder built the sewage treatment, but they are not up to scratch, Irish Water will not take them over and, therefore, the councils will not take over these estates. There are about 500 of these. There are 50 alone in County Cork that have not been taken in charge. These are stand-alone sewage treatment plants.