Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is great to see you back in the Chair, a Cheann Comhairle. I wish you the best of luck.

I welcome the opportunity to speak about Irish Water and water policy. At times, I have spoken repeatedly about some of the issues creating problems with regard to the work carried out under Irish Water. Irish Water has two main functions: water and wastewater.

I will address wastewater first. Other Deputies have also mentioned that a large number of private housing estates in this country are serviced by private wastewater treatment plants. The cost of funding the running costs, maintenance and the future replacement of these plants is being foisted on the residents of these estates. These residents are doing this in addition to paying their local property tax and all their other taxes. When they bought their houses, they bought them in good faith. Peculiarly, Irish Water is refusing to take these wastewater treatment plants in hand. The local authorities are refusing to have anything to do with it. They say it is Irish Water's problem. What we have is an environmental time bomb. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, spoke about water control and quality. Abbeyknockmoy in my constituency is in the Corrib catchment and is a special area of conservation, SAC. There are six estates in Corofin, all of which are built around the River Clare, which is a catchment to the Corrib. The Corrib is supplying water to a large part of Galway and Mayo. We have an opportunity to put things right before we see fish lying upside down in the water with their bellies up and wonder what has gone wrong. The EPA is hounding residents to make sure they do not pollute the rivers. That is all wrong. Funding needs to be given to Irish Water to take these treatment plants in hand. Furthermore, Abbeyknockmoy and Corofin are two principal areas where we can have growth in terms of housing but are frozen out of the planning system because any development there will be premature pending the installation of a municipal treatment plant. This is a decision for An Bord Pleanála going back to 2007 and has not changed.

Funnily enough, in 2005 during my first few years on the council, there was a list of wastewater treatment plants to be built by Galway County Council with funding from the Department. Corofin, Abbeyknockmoy, Craughwell and the municipal wastewater treatment east of Galway city were on this list. None of them are anywhere at this stage. There is a plethora of towns and villages where we could have people living but they cannot get permission to build houses because there is no wastewater treatment plant. These are the facts. We talk about a housing crisis and emergency. It is all waffle if we do not do something about it. It is important that we stop talking about it and put the necessary funding in place. We must direct Irish Water to do what needs to be done in this country.

Another good example is Athenry, where we built an extension to our wastewater treatment plant. That plant now has the capacity to take all the housing estates in the town but none of them are connected because the contract for the network to connect them is still not sorted out. There is an IDA site in Athenry, which is at the crossroads of our motorways and rail intersections between Limerick, Galway and Dublin. Guess what - the IDA site is not serviced. It has been looking at making a connection between Athenry and Galway to get into Mutton Island for a wastewater service costing €16 million. Shame on us for doing daft things like that with public money instead of getting our infrastructure right in the towns where we need to get it right.

If we are serious about traffic in Galway, we need to build a municipal treatment plant on the east of the city out where we have what we call the Ardaun corridor, which is the place selected for the future development of Galway city. It is in the east of the county but until we put in a wastewater treatment plant, we will not be able to put in the infrastructure we need. If we are serious about not having a ring road around Galway, let us build the city where we can have access to it. However, we cannot do it if we do not have the services. It is very frustrating for public representatives because what we get is a load of feasibility studies and business costs analyses and reports and if you want to slow down, you ask for clarification and basically you end up doing nothing.

If we are really serious and if we are having talks here about water, infrastructure, housing, health and all that goes with them and if we want to develop the west and south of Ireland, we need to provide the infrastructure and one of the basic commodities involves wastewater and water. Will the Minister of State please bring this back to whoever is providing the funding and direct people about how Irish Water should spend its money?

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