Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Many works need to be done by Irish Water. Despite it being a semi-State body, the State seems to abdicate all responsibility to Irish Water. I recently asked Irish Water who is responsible and it informed me that at the end of the day, the State is. Some urgent issues have gone unaddressed for years. Shannonvale has a green space that used to be the heart of the village but now it is unsafe and unusable because of a treatment plant that floods the area consistently. In Belgooly, malodours from the waste water treatment plant are so bad, people have to keep their windows closed. Many people want to move from there, but the value of their homes has decreased as a result.

The Glengarriff road in Bantry, the gateway to the Wild Atlantic Way and the main road into tourism town of the year, is so bad it is damaging cars but road works cannot go ahead until Irish Water completes its works first. None of these projects are on its capital investment programme, meaning they simply will not be done. At what point will the State intervene?

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