Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I raise with the Taoiseach the issue of the building of a sewerage scheme in Kilcummin, east Kerry, north of and bounding Killarney. The people in Kilcummin have been trying to progress this scheme since 2000. Work was to begin around 2006 or 2007 but the contractor was found not to be able to deliver. Thus, Kerry County Council decided to tender it out again and a new form of tender was demanded by the Department. Kerry County Council was unsure, the contractors were unsure and, anyway, the Department of Finance stopped it and withdrew the scheme in 2008 because the country was gone bust, as the Taoiseach knows well.

Promises were being made continuously, year after year, to deliver this scheme. There was money available to upgrade the road, but the road up to Kilcummin could not be resurfaced because it was anticipated the sewerage scheme would be coming down any week or any month. As it was supposed to happen very soon, the road resurfacing kept being deferred until last year, when, for the first time, the truth was told that the scheme would not go ahead in 2020, even though it was promised.

To go back to 2013, the Government of the time, including Labour, promised €1.2 million for that scheme. Promises were again made in early 2019 but I have told the Taoiseach what happened in 2020. Lo and behold, Irish Water announced last Thursday that the scheme would go ahead in late 2022, with tenders going out at that time but the sting was in the detail because three roads, involving almost 40 houses, are to be cut out of the scheme. The reason Irish Water gave was that these people did not apply for the scheme. Nothing could be further from the truth as they were never asked to apply. It gave another reason, that costs have increased, which is the truth. There is no point in it trying to blame the people.

The Taoiseach is here in his bubble every day, talking about building houses with one policy or another, and he is saying that funding is not a problem, and telling people to build in villages or towns, and not to build one-off houses out the country. The planning regulators are putting every obstacle in their way. Kilcummin is the largest parish in the country, with all streams and rivers from this area going into the lakes of Killarney. There are two nursing homes and 210 houses being accommodated, leaving out 40 houses. There are several villages in Kerry without sewerage schemes - Kilcummin, Currow, Scartaglin, Castleisland and Beaufort. Several schemes need to be extended or brought up to standard at Castleisland, Brosna, Kenmare and Fenit.

Commercial or housing developments are being halted because of these inferior schemes.

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