Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)

Rural communities are being hollowed out right across the State because of the housing crisis. Towns and villages are facing demographic cliff edges in many cases. Young people cannot buy or build homes where they grew up right across rural Ireland. In many cases, this is down to inaction by the Government, but in many other cases, it is down to a lack of critical infrastructure, especially water services.

This question is directed to Mr. Gleeson. I will give two examples. There are major problems with water in Lismore, County Waterford. I know Mr. Gleeson cannot be aware of every case, but I imagine he has heard of Lismore because there are outages every other week and major issues. It has been raised at national level. The lack of water capacity has meant 20 homes are being held back from being developed. These are 20 family homes in a small town in rural west Waterford. There is also Bunmahon in County Waterford. It is on the Copper Coast, where there should be pristine beaches. Raw sewage, though, is entering the mouth of the River Mahon and going straight out to the coast. Again, there has been no investment in water services. Not only is this creating environmental harm, and the EPA has highlighted this with Uisce Éireann, it is also holding back the development of homes. This is another village with young people who cannot buy or build homes in their own area. When are we going to see action on this issue?