Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a key infrastructural issue in terms of facilitating the construction of thousands of houses but also in terms of the broader economy. The existing Uisce Éireann strategic funding plan, which was from 2025 to 2029, was approved last November. That committed over €10 billion in capital investment by Uisce Éireann in that period. There will be further additional investment in the context of the national development plan. We already announced an additional €1 billion allocation in the last budget in respect of receipts from the sale of shares in AIB. We are under no illusion that it will need substantially more capital investment.

The water supply project was approved in principle by Government in June of last year. That is a generational project, as the Deputy referenced, in terms of dealing with the deficit and lack of capacity for growth in the eastern and midlands region by supplying water from a hydro power reservoir on the Shannon river. We need people to go with that. We need political representatives to go with that because any delay in that could have very serious consequences for the eastern and midland region. The spent on that is extraordinarily high.

Regarding the greater Dublin drainage project that the Deputy spoke about, the current planning application is, it is my understanding, under review. Again, the Deputy mentioned judicial reviews. The new planning Act is meant to streamline that. We have to now implement that and commence it. That was the subject of a lot of debate and opposition in the last Dáil. A lot of people said we were rushing it but it took four years to get from conception to conclusion in the Legislature and to get that Act passed. On the one hand, we are saying our system is too slow - and it is, in my view - in terms of both planning and the utilisation of judicial reviews, JRs. Collectively as a society, we have to weigh up what is important for all of us collectively. Water supply is part of that. What we are saying to Irish Water is that there will be further investment but, parallel to compliance obligations, there has to be increased capacity for housing.

We also, I believe, have to look at the option of working with the private sector in terms of water supply and wastewater. We have to just open up and broaden perspectives in terms of how we are going to meet the enormous challenges we are facing, on the housing front in particular, in terms of new connections and new supply capacity. That is something the Government is examining at the moment.

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