Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Clean drinking water and wastewater treatment systems are basic components needed to grow or even to just sustain rural communities. At the moment, our island communities in west Cork face huge barriers in accessing affordable social housing due to the need for a stand-alone wastewater treatment units. In Castletownbere, there is an issue where there is no extra capacity for drinking water because of the presence of pearl mussels in the current supply of drinking water. There is also the issue I raised with the Taoiseach the week before last about Shannonvale, where the wastewater treatment plant literally spills into the green space in the village and into the river. An estate on the other side of the river was built in 2004 with a temporary sewer because the village was supposed to get one installed in 2005. Twenty years later, it has still not been resolved or taken in charge. That is now degrading and adding to the leakage into the same river. I have had extensive meetings with Irish Water on a regular basis. I am sick of meeting them and I think they are sick of meeting me. As it does not have enough capital funding, it is prioritising areas that have no treatment systems, where the waste is going straight into the water. It desperately needs more money.

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