Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will carry on from where Deputy O'Connor left off, about whether notices should be issued about the consumption of water. There are other Deputies from Cork North-Central in the Chamber. I know that some Deputies have brought in samples of water in the past. It clearly is not a reliable source of drinking water at the moment. While we cannot blame people for not taking the risk, Irish Water still has this policy where it will not issue the non-consumption notice. At this stage, I think people need to be offered at least the choice or whether they trust what is in the tap or would prefer to drink water from a bottle because at this stage it is clearly demonstrated that the resource that is there is not reliable.

I will mention some villages affected by wastewater treatment plants. Carrignavar is probably the one that gets discussed most here. Development in the village has been basically hamstrung for the last decade. Given the pace at which Irish Water delivers its wastewater treatment plants, it is likely to be hamstrung and restricted in its development potential for at least the next seven to eight years, even if it got the green light tomorrow. I know Cork County Council is actively looking at putting a proposal for a pilot to submit to the Department, basically due to Irish Water's lack of capacity to deliver that wastewater treatment and others. At the moment in Cork county alone, 37 wastewater treatment plants are on a list. Funding was allocated to the first of those two years ago and there is still not shovel in the ground or a digger on site. We need to be radical and have a proper look at what we are doing. Clearly, Irish Water does not have the capacity to deliver these wastewater treatment plants.

While it might not be popular to say it, we need to consider the pilot scheme the local authority in Cork is proposing or developer-led infrastructure again. This is now impinging on our capability to deliver housing as is well documented in here. If developers, particularity on larger schemes and sites, could sit around the table with the local authority and Irish Water and actually devise bespoke schemes that could deliver housing or at least free up the capacity to get on and deliver housing, that would be one way to go at the moment.

I will conclude by mentioning the Carrigrenan wastewater treatment plant in Little Island, which is the largest wastewater treatment plant in Cork. We have periodic issues with it. As it is the largest single piece of wastewater infrastructure in the county of Cork, this is quite concerning. There is a new playground down there, along with a walkway, and new houses are being built around it. Unfortunately, despite all the promises given 20 years ago that we would not even notice it was there, depending on the prevailing wind of the day you can notice it. Once your nose is not blocked and you do not have a cold, it is hard to miss it. It is unfortunate that this happens and continues to happen. Serious investment is required in the Carrigrenan wastewater treatment plant. It is subcontracted out to an English company at the moment and they basically run it. Let us just say that I do not believe they are giving it the same duty of care that Uisce Éireann or the council would have done previously.

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