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

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. Senior engineers with Kerry County Council, Tadhg Meehan, Paul Neary and Charlie O’Leary, technical engineers like Freddie Bartlett and Mike Downey, and several others have invested an awful lot of time trying to resolve this issue. When I hear the Minister of State saying that it is up to the local authorities to make up the shortfall, I have to explain to her about the contradiction. Our local authorities were informed on 18 April 2024 that, as and from 1 January 2024, Uisce Éireann has been assigned responsibility for the remediation of DPI infrastructure, which actually absolves the local authorities. It is written there but I see the Minister of State shaking her head. Where are the local authorities going to get the funding? They do not have it. The residents are very good residents who have done a lot of work there. There is also a pub and a restaurant in the middle of these estates. A lot of work has been done as they work together to try to eradicate the problems as much as they can.

The serious issue remains, however and, to solve the problem, they have to connect to the Killarney public treatment plant. To do that we are now being told that €1.3 million is the cost and they are providing €992,000. Where is the other €330,000 to come from? The residents clearly do not have it. There are 69 households and 90% of these residents have families. We all know the pressure families are under at present with the cost of transport, the cost of living and the cost of everything. They do not have money to make up this €330,000.

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