Dáil debates
Thursday, 3 September 2020
Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
10:50 am
Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source
I welcome the Minister's positive words about the development. A significant issue in Galway and other counties is that many housing estates were built with private wastewater treatment plants that are not being taken in charge by Irish Water or by Galway County Council. It is left to the residents to provide the funding to maintain these treatment plants and to provide for future investment to keep them alive. The reality, which I see and know at first hand, is that in many of these estates the treatment plants are an environmental disaster about to happen. There is no maintenance happening and nobody is taking responsibility, and this also needs to be factored in. I believe a working group in the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government was looking at this, but looking at it is no good. We need the funding to make sure it is sorted out. I ask the Minister to look at it because an environmental disaster is waiting to happen if we do not invest in it.
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