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

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. This is the first scheme that Irish Water has taken charge of and is responsible for in County Kerry. As I have said, up to now connections were left out on the side of the road for people, free of charge. While €4,000 may not sound like much to the Minister of State or to other people, if you do not have it, it is an awful lot of money. This is going to be a headline for all the other counties in which Irish Water will be responsible for sewerage schemes from now on. It says it will charge €4,000 per customer. I do not think that will work. It will not work in this case. It is a fright to God to spend €9 million of taxpayers' money and not ensure all the people along the road, who are adjacent to the road, are accommodated. There are between 50 and 70 houses that are not accommodated now. They were never ready for this. Most of them are conscious of pollution and water quality and want to be part of that. At this point in time, they do not have the funds to pay for it. Many of them visited my clinics in the last few days and highlighted what is going on. They said it is a fright that the pipe is passing them and the connections are not being left out while the work is ongoing. If people decide at a later stage that they will pay for it or whatever, it is going to cost Irish Water a lot more than €4,000 even to provide the connection as it will have to dig down 5 m or 6 m in some places, and maybe 2 m in most of it. That is never going to happen. What is the scheme for, if the big pipe is passing down the road and they are not connected to it? It does not make any sense in the world. It might be a small amount of money in the Government's eyes, but it is a big amount to the people involved. This is going to be replicated across the country. The Government either needs to talk to the regulator, which said it is all right for Irish Water to charge this money, or give Irish Water the funds to accommodate the connections.

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