Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

With all due respect to the Minister of State, it was the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, whom I wanted to have in front of me. I refer to some of the comments he made in his introduction when he started talking about the Land Development Agency, LDA. Much of what he was talking about is a crock of bull. I hate to put it that way, but it is.

The LDA was set up to deal with infrastructure within 15 minutes of cities. This is what the Government set it up to do. In my area, this brings in Patrickswell, Adare, Croom, Ballyneety and Crecora, which are all about 15 minutes from Limerick city, but it wipes out the rest of County Limerick. In Croom, permission has been granted to build 135 houses. There is also a new water scheme that got funding of €5 million. I do not know if the company is Uisce Éireann or Irish Water, but whatever it is called these days, it has got funding to put in a water supply. A 100-person nursing home is to be built there too, as well as housing for the elderly and a crèche facility for progression of the primary school. A letter came from Uisce Éireann three months ago to say it wants €400,000 to investigate the infrastructure in Croom to see if it is possible to build houses. The company went to the landowners looking for this development fee.

Usually, when people want to build houses, the infrastructure is provided by the Government and then those people pay a fee per house when they build the houses. Irish Water, however, is looking for €400,000 for a survey, even though a survey was done previously when the Croom system was taken over from the Government by Irish Water or Uisce Éireann or whatever the company is called today. At the moment, therefore, 135 houses, a nursing home and houses for the elderly are being held up because of funding and infrastructure. The sewerage system in Croom now has enough capacity for 300 people. It is under severe pressure and needs maintenance. When the new road was being built to service the school in Croom, I said the extra infrastructure required should be put in because in the Government's plans, in the context of the LDA, it wanted to invest in areas 15 minutes from Limerick city. It did not do that.

I have been a contractor all my life and I can see that when infrastructure is to be put in place, it should be done when roads are being put in.

You increase the size of the pipes and everything else to make sure the services are there to allow houses to be built. Did the Government listen? No. Does it listen to anything we say in this House? It then has to do U-turns afterwards and look for investment. Last week, I spoke about five sites in Kilmallock that were offered to the county council. The person in question even offered to build the houses and then offer them back to the local authority but has not got a phone call. The Government says there is a housing crisis. Why is that? The council has now been informed that it is not to buy any more sites or houses and that it is to leave them to agencies. That is why.

See this speech in context