John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on this Bill. While it is technical in nature, we will be supporting it. I very much welcome anything we can do that facilitates and speeds up the delivery of social housing so I welcome this Bill.

However, I wish to raise a very serious concern. From speaking to AHBs and the developers with which they work to deliver turnkey housing developments, I have heard of issues they are having with Irish Water. Those issues have mainly arisen since April since the introduction of new legislation. One example highlights many of the issues developers and AHBs are facing. It concerns a development in Fortfield in Tralee consisting of 15 houses. I worked with the Minister at the time to get it approved and was very grateful for his input. The development started, the developer agreed with Irish Water that as it was a social housing project and there would be no development contributions. The fee for providing a water connection was €8,900. The developer sent on the cheque and his agent sent on the necessary paperwork. Construction of the houses proceeded. In July, the developer became concerned that the water connection had not been provided so he contacted Irish Water to be told that it had no record of his cheque or paperwork, the original agreement had lapsed after 90 days and Irish Water was now looking for €90,000 which, as one can imagine, came as quite a shock to the developer as he had not budgeted for it in his original price. Irish Water basically said that after April, it was now charging voluntary housing bodies development levies and that if the developer had a difficulty with this decision, he could go to the regulator, which has happened. To add insult to injury, Irish Water came out on site a couple of weeks ago, found that the original connection was not where it wanted it to be, had to carry out some further infrastructural works and is now looking for a further €120,000 to bring the water main farther up the road to a new point of connection. In January 2018, the infrastructure charge was €8,900 but it has risen to somewhere in the region of €200,000. This will make this project completely unviable. I fear that if it is not resolved in the coming weeks, we will be left with 15 houses that are ready to be occupied but have no water connection so it needs to be resolved.

I have spoken with two other developers who have told me that the single biggest blockage they face in delivering housing, both private and social, is Irish Water and the ability to get quotations and reasonable prices and to get the work done. I want to use this opportunity to bring this issue to the Minister's attention. I have spoken to Irish Water about the case I raised. It is not acceptable for a public utility to behave in a manner that jeopardises private and public housing developments. I am sure the Minister will take what I have said very seriously.

I do not know whether or not the next issue applies to AHBs but where infrastructure has been provided by the developer, Irish Water is not obliged to take that development in charge or take responsibility for it. If a developer provided the wastewater infrastructure for a completed development, it can never be taken in charge. I foresee significant problems down the road with this.

They want to be treated like every other development but because the developer provided the sewage infrastructure Irish Water does not want to know about it. It is something we have to deal with. I appreciate it is not part of this legislation but I wanted to take the opportunity to bring it to the Minister of State's attention.

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