Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I could stay here for an hour with the Minister of State. I have been listening to the whole Chamber and the one thing no one has brought up is infrastructure. The Government has failed rural Ireland with infrastructure. I will start with the area where I was elected first, the Adare-Rathkeale district. On a promise from Government, they are waiting 30 years for a storage plant in Askeaton. No more houses can be built there because there is no infrastructure and no commitment, including from the current Government, has been fulfilled for storage plants. I will move on to Adare and mention Irish Water, a failed identity. Only for the persistence of my colleagues in the Adare-Rathkeale district, they were going to resurface a road and put in footpath in Adare without putting a sewer line down through the middle of the street because Irish Water would not commit.

It delayed the process by eight months. It is only due to the persistence of the Adare Rathkeale councillors that the sewer line was laid and the reconstruction of the road completed. There is tunnel vision and no forward thinking.

The Minister of State spoke of building 800 houses here and 300 there. There is no infrastructure in Limerick. People in Oola are waiting for a sewerage system and the county council is refusing planning permission applications because there is no infrastructure. People cannot move home.

On conservation in our towns and villages, many voids and vacant buildings in County Limerick could be used to rehouse people if some common sense were shown. However, legislation and regulation are preventing this. A building contractor, of which I am one, who wishes to build a house must pay €17,000 for a site in order to make a profit. A site in rural Ireland will cost a minimum of €50,000. A sewerage system will cost another €15,000. Getting plans from an architect or engineer costs another €3,000. That is only for the plans, not for building a house. Irish Water might charge another €3,000 and county council fees could be another €5,000. The list of council amenities includes libraries and footpaths, but none of these is provided in rural areas because the Government has forgotten rural Ireland. It has not provided any money or infrastructure for rural Ireland and has not kept any commitments to it. I could keep the Minister of State here all night listing the failures of his Government and its predecessors to provide infrastructure in rural towns. Building houses in the cities is possible because the Government is providing funding for infrastructure but raw sewage is flowing into the sea because of the lack of infrastructure. The Government has forgotten rural Ireland. It needs to invest in it and relax conservation legislation, so that people can retain facades and roof structures and rebuild streets. I know it can be done because I am a contractor. I do it every single day, as do the people I employ. The Government penalises people in rural Ireland. There is no Internet connectivity. These are the people who kept us going with food when the pandemic hit. The Government must think about infrastructure and let people build at home. Under the 2040 plan, if I live in Kilmallock and work in Shannon, I would lose my planning permission unless I have an emissions impact study. That needs to be revised. The Government must invest in rural Ireland and must be constructive so that people who wish to do so can come home to their families.

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