Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for the reply, but it does not give me confidence that something will be done in the immediate future. Let us take the example of Athenry, a town all present know well. Three years ago, the wastewater treatment plant was expanded to take in additional capacity of all the housing estates in the town. There is a pipe network contract to be completed for that. It was supposed to be finished by now but it has not even started. What I mean by that is that surveys may be under way. The answer I get is that this could be done in 2025, pending funding. At the same time, there are housing estates where raw sewage is flowing around gardens. There is a similar situation in Craughwell, where there is no municipal treatment. I have video footage of people there looking out their back window at raw sewage coming in on top of them. This is an intolerable situation and it is an environmental time bomb. We do not need more reports. Rather, we need to get to the nub of the issue, that is, funding.

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