Maria McCormack (Sinn Fein)

I will pick one issue and explain and give an overview of it. I mention Hollybrook, a developer in County Laois. I feel like piggy in the middle in this situation. Eighty houses have been sold to families, some of whom have reached out to me. They were originally supposed to move into the houses in February 2025. The date was pushed back to April or May 2025 and then again to October 2025. The developer is saying it is down to delays with the ESB. I contacted the ESB, and it came back after one month via email. It stated that ESB Networks strongly encourages developers to engage with ESB well in advance and that it was liaising with the developer. I went back to the developer, and it said it applied for the original quotation on 29 March 2024. It only got an acknowledgement that the application was received on 17 July 2024. There is back and forward here. Eventually, the developer got communication from ESB and had a meeting with it on 2 April 2025. I forwarded this communication to the contact in the ESB. It came back and said there was extra work it needed to do in Portlaoise, and everything would be up and running by 20 June. That did not happen. Families from Dublin who have bought the houses cannot get a school bus for their children from Dublin to Portlaoise. They have children enrolled in schools. Another housing estate built after the development in Portlaoise has got its connections. The estates are on different roads. Why is one taking priority? How do I navigate this situation when the ESB is telling me that the developer is not giving it enough time and the developer is saying it is contacting the ESB? In the middle of it all, I have 80 families who cannot get into their houses. The houses are going to go mouldy if they are left for a year without their ESB connection.