Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I am taking this on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, who sends his apologies for not being able to be present.

I will first outline the work that Irish Water has been doing, which is important to set the scene for what we are discussing. Since 1 January 2014, Irish Water has had statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local level. Irish Water as a single national water services authority is taking a strategic, nationwide approach to asset planning and investment, and meeting customer requirements.

Irish Water is working with all the local authorities to support housing development as a priority including in north County Cork. Furthermore, it has established a dedicated connection and developer services function to work with developers through a pre-connection inquiry service.

It delivers its services in accordance with its water services strategic plan published in October 2015. This sets out a high-level strategy over 25 years to ensure the provision of clean safe drinking water, effective management of wastewater, environmental protection, and support for economic and social development.

In addition, the first ever national water services policy statement, prepared in line with the Water Services Acts, which was launched on 21 May 2018, outlines a clear direction for strategic planning and decision making on water and wastewater services in Ireland. It identifies key policy objectives and priorities for the delivery of water and wastewater services in Ireland up to 2025. It provides the context within which necessary funding and investment plans by Irish Water are framed and agreed.

On 7 November 2018, the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, approved the Irish Water strategic funding plan for 2019 to 2024.

This sets out Irish Water's multi-annual strategic funding requirement of €11 billion out to 2024. This comprises €6.1 billion of investment in infrastructure and assets and €4.9 billion in operating costs. This significant multi-billion euro investment programme aims to ensure the continued operation, repair and upgrading of the country’s water and wastewater infrastructure to support social and economic development across the State and continued care of the water environment, including the projects to which Deputy O'Keeffe referred.

The strategic funding plan is now subject to economic regulatory review by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, which will consider the efficiency of the investment proposals together with submissions from Irish Water on its detailed investment plans for the third regulatory control period from 2020 to 2024. The investment plans will set out Irish Water’s financial planning for capital investments to support its strategic objectives to deliver improvements to water services where they are needed most.

I will outline to the Deputy the situation with regard to planning applications in my follow-up response.

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