Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have stepped into the breach as an emergency service for Deputy Michael Healy-Rae. I appreciate the legislation is about expediting arrangements to build large-scale developments, but there are related matters the Minister might want to address. First, touching on points made by Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, when are we going to address the issue of vexatious appeals? They are costing us housing and other investments in the country. It is beyond time for that issue to be addressed.

In terms of impediments to development, housing or otherwise, Irish Water and its resourcing is probably one of the most significant roadblocks. I had an engagement with Irish Water recently on a project in my own constituency related to quite substantial housing delivery, for which the funding was committed. Irish Water told me the best case scenario was four and a half years and in a worst-case scenario it could be seven years before the infrastructure was in place. I accept there are a lot of complications in this particular case but if we are really committed to resolving these issues, we need to resource Irish Water sufficiently.

It feeds into the issue around zoning as well. It is one thing for local authorities to zone land and allow Irish Water to follow suit in terms of providing the infrastructure on this identified land for development. However, we need a kind of traffic light system so that all local authorities would be identifying the land they are going to develop in the next five years and the infrastructure that needs to be put in place, be it roads, footpaths, public lighting, water, sewers or whatever. They also need a line of sight, as do builders and developers, of what is coming on next so that they are confident to make the required investment that makes sense in terms of their businesses. They need to know what will happen in the next five years. Irish Water also needs to have a line of sight of where the required investment would be in the period after that. Without that, proper planning is impossible. We need to put more money into Irish Water but we must also give it the vision it needs to plan infrastructure beyond the five-year horizon. That is what it is constrained by currently in development plans.

I am grateful to the Ceann Comhairle and Deputy Michael Healy-Rae for the time.

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