Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not expect an answer on the two specific examples I am going to raise today. I will raise them with the witnesses and follow up with an email. I will specifically ask about Carrignavar and Glenville, north of Cork city. In both cases, issues have been ongoing for the last eight, nine or ten years. In Carrignavar, there is evidence that there has been leaks from the existing wastewater facility in the past. A shortlist of 37 wastewater treatment plants to be prioritised has been drawn up in conjunction with the local authority. Carrignavar features at number 11 or 12 on that list. Under the last round, funding was devoted to the first six projects. I hope that Carrignavar might feature in the 2025 capital scheme.

To give context, there is a village there but it has not been possible to build additional housing for the last ten years or so. It is ten minutes to the city and due to get an improved bus corridor under BusConnects. The location is ten minutes from the city centre but houses cannot be built. Even the new school the Tánaiste will be cutting the ribbon on this week had to give a commitment during the planning stage that it would not take additional students over the existing capacity. I am just highlighting the restrictions on the village and how this is inhibiting growth and restricting the capacity of the town to grow. People from Carrignavar listening in will find it very hard to hear about a lead-in time of five to seven years in addition to the ten years that have already passed. You are talking about the bones of 15 to 20 years before seeing an upgraded treatment plant. I just do not know if that is good enough. If the witnesses do not have details on Carrignavar and Glenville, I would appreciate a follow-up afterwards.

I would say Deputy Gould will speak to the issue of water quality in Cork city. Uisce Éireann is obviously aware of the ongoing problem in that regard. The quality of water coming through people's taps varies, to put it mildly. People cannot drink it at the best of times. They cannot wash in it. They cannot really use it at all. To be fair to Irish Water locally, we met its officials two or three months ago and they talked us through the plan. It is sectioning areas off and going through it pipe by pipe. They think that, given a bit of time, they will be able to get to the bottom of an awful lot of the difficulties. We appreciate that work but we raised the point in the private meeting that people still cannot drink that water. In most cases, they are paying for bottled water. The rationale given was that there is no notice on the water. Uisce Éireann is not saying it is not drinkable much of the time. However, if water is coming out from your taps brown, red or a rusty colour, nobody is going to drink it. Obviously, the advice is not to drink it but is there any way people can be accommodated and water made available to them if they so choose? Those are my initial queries.