Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Coachford is a great area. It is a fantastic village with great potential. There are great facilities there, serving a huge local community. There is a secondary school, shops, pubs, pharmacies, a credit union, an undertaker and two childcare facilities serving a huge community around the area. Right on its doorstep Dell EMC and VMware are major employers. The area has real potential. A new school building is being proposed for Coachford college. However, while the area around Coachford is growing, the village itself is stuck. People cannot get houses. They cannot obtain planning permission or buy houses because it is impossible to get sewer connections. There are two unfinished estates that cannot be built out because the developers cannot get sewer connections. The county council had plans to build social housing which had to be parked because it could not get a sewer connection. One can imagine that the unfinished estates are also attracting unwanted attention.

Locals are unable to build in the village itself. They are struggling to get planning in the village and the wider area due to planning restrictions. Even in the village, if one is lucky enough to get planning permission, it is on the condition that a temporary treatment plant is used, which the residents have to pay to maintain. Some residents have been doing this for up to ten years while waiting for the council and Irish Water to put in place services that have not been forthcoming. In the meantime they are being charged development charges and connection fees for a sewer that is not being developed.

The need for a sewer in Coachford was recognised. Cork County Council advanced the project; it had Part 8 planning on a site beside the hurling pitch and was discussing outflow pipes with landowners. That was over ten years ago. However, the project did not proceed because of the economic downturn. When Irish Water took over in 2013, it discussed advancing the project as well. It produced various different business cases and continued with planning and design. It has even switched sites and now has planning permission on alternative sites, but it is still stuck with discussing land acquisition and talking to landowners. In 2015, Deputies in Government at the time told us that construction would start the following year. Three years later there is no sewer, no contractor has been appointed, and land still has to be purchased.

It is easy to imagine the frustration of the people of Coachford. The village has such potential. It has a really active community and it wants to get this project going. In Coachford, the foul water and surface water are mixed together in the network. If there is bad weather and flooding, foul water becomes backed up in the gullies in the village. That is not the only environmental concern here. Coachford is immediately adjacent to the Inniscarra dam, the water supply for Cork city. This matter has been raised repeatedly with the various authorities, but people do not feel that Irish Water has recognised the problem or responded with the necessary urgency. I understand that it is proposed to bundle the Coachford project with a number of other schemes, namely, those in Ballyvourney, Dripsey and Innishannon, so that they can be constructed together. Each scheme is needed. From a social, economic and environmental perspective, Coachford must be released.

Will the Minister of State impress the urgent need to address this matter on Irish Water? Will he light a fire under it to get it moving and ensure that the Coachford wastewater scheme becomes a reality?

See this speech in context