PJ Murphy (Fine Gael)

I absolutely take that on board. Maybe we need a best practice standard for local authorities. I accept that what Mr. O'Connell has said is a solution for the fear I had about zoned land tax constraining county and city councillors.

There were welcome proposals to the Cabinet today from the Minister on developer-led package treatment plants. As Fine Gael spokesperson for housing in the Seanad and previously a county councillor, this is something I have long advocated for. In my local electoral area in south Galway - the Gort-Kinvara local electoral area - we have 14 settlements, of which only two are serviced with wastewater treatment facilities. Twelve of our villages are unserviced and have been closed to development since about 2011. No housing projects have been built in those 12 settlements since then due to the lack of wastewater infrastructure. I sincerely hope this morning's proposal to the Cabinet will bring life back into many dying villages in rural areas such as the one I represent.

However, I have some small concerns about feasibility. While I have no doubt that developer-led package treatment plants will be viable for the vast majority of the 545 unserviced settlements in the country, EPA standards must be met. I am concerned for some villages, towns and settlements that are in slightly different geological areas, maybe in peatland or karst limestone areas where there will be issues with percolation. That is either percolation too fast into groundwater or peaty areas where there is no percolation at all and potentially no overground drainage system, such as a river, stream or access to the sea. In those cases, the outflow from the package treatment plants will have to be to a much higher standard to meet EPA guidelines. I have a concern about viability in those settlements.

As a representative body of many small and medium-sized builders who would inevitably be developing these village and small town developments, does the Irish Home Builders Association see a role for a cost-levelling system or State intervention to cover the cost beyond a certain cap per unit for delivery of onsite, developer-led package treatment plants? That would ensure no settlement is left behind due to viability through no fault of their own but because of the geological ground they are sitting on.