Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, for taking this debate. It is particularly important in the context of the biggest challenge facing this country, which is housing. Whether it is the challenge of the cost of connection fees for individuals, which Deputy Lawlor has raised, or indeed for developers trying to build a new estate, some of the amounts are eye-watering. In many cases Uisce Éireann is not willing to negotiate even phased payments. It is my view that every State agency should be contributing towards tackling the housing crisis. They should not be putting roadblocks in place and it should be their top priority to ask themselves every morning "What are we doing to assist in the delivery of housing within the State?". We know the costs involved. It is estimated that for every 50,000 homes, the cost will be a €1.7 billion investment to deliver water and wastewater infrastructure. As a State we have to do that and we are committed to doing that but our challenge as a Government and as a society has always been around delivery. It is not about money anymore. The questions the Minister of State must put to Uisce Éireann are whether housing is top of its agenda, and whether it is delivering.

I will start with a note of praise about the Arklow wastewater treatment plant, which the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, made sure was delivered during the term of the last Government. Last week The Guardian newspaper in the UK described this remarkable architectural design by Irish architects Clancy Moore as the world's "most beautiful sewage treatment plant". Indeed, they refer to it as a "cathedral of crap", which is a certain amount of praise. It does show that things can be done and it has led to the Avoca River being cleaned up and tackling some of the environmental problems. It now allows Arklow, a town that in many ways has been held back for decades, to expand and be able to develop in a sustainable way. It should be noted, however, that it was 1988 when Arklow was first mooted as needing a new wastewater treatment. It took three and a half decades before we actually saw real progress. Arklow will begin to grow but there is a problem then for a lot of the villages in south Wicklow. I will instance one in particular, which is the beautiful village of Aughrim where, according to Uisce Éireann, there is no capacity for it to be able to develop. That means, of course, that we cannot have additional housing. Again, this is a significant problem and particularly if we are looking at developing the south Wicklow greenway and looking at tourism offerings and so on. It is impossible if we do not have the necessary water and wastewater infrastructure. The EPA's own report in 2024 talked about some of the problems with regular discharges of partially treated wastewater in Aughrim, and said that Uisce Éireann is failing to address this and that there is no secondary treatment. At the moment, given the schedule, it looks like it will be 2029 before we see it being delivered. That is not acceptable to the people of Aughrim or south Wicklow.

South of the border in County Wexford, in the other part of the constituency I am proud to represent, Gorey is growing very quickly. In the period between the censuses of 2016 and 2022, the population of the local electoral area grew by 14%. That is obviously putting a lot of pressure on connections and so on. Part of the problem, and why all the building is happening in Gorey, is that most of the villages in the surrounding area do not have the capacity. Uisce Éireann's red list of villages where there is no spare capacity includes Ballycanew, Camolin, Ballindaggan, Boolavogue and Killinierin. There is no capacity in these beautiful villages and communities. People who work in those communities cannot live in them, simply because there is no water or wastewater capacity. I will highlight one scheme in particular that has been a priority for Wexford County Council for well over two decades. Deputy Lawlor will know that I am referring to the Ferns-Camolin scheme. The late Independent councillor, Declan MacPartlin, raised this project at nearly every council meeting he was at. It would be a wonderful legacy to him to finally see it delivered for the people of Ferns and Camolin. Without this scheme, it is practically impossible for those two villages to grow. This puts increased pressure on the town of Gorey. We are being told it is a priority. If we are to see that it is a priority, we have to actually see building work being delivered. I specifically ask the Minister of State to go back with this. I have raised it on a number of occasions, including on the floor of the Dáil and the Seanad and directly with Uisce Éireann. I ask that the Aughrim scheme in County Wicklow and the Ferns-Camolin scheme in County Wexford would be prioritised. The Minister of State might come back with an answer to me.

I will conclude by speaking about our creaking infrastructure and the problems in the State with the growth we have had. Deputy Lawlor mentioned some of the problems in Wexford town. Last year we had 22 water outages in Gorey at different stages, which impacted different parts of the town. In many cases these outages took place without notice. In quite a number of cases they were for longer than 24 hours. The Minister of State can imagine the disruption for individuals trying to get to work when they are unable to shower in the morning, or to wash during the course of the day. These outages impacted parts of the town and rural areas like Tara Hill and Ballymoney. It is just not acceptable to have that number of outages. The message has to be in terms of investment. We know the money is there. We talk about the sovereign wealth funds, about the Apple money and about how we are going to invest in our infrastructure, but we need to ensure Uisce Éireann actually delivers. Unfortunately, the experience from a lot of this is that the pace of delivery is just not good enough. The question that Uisce Éireann is not asking every time its leadership gets up in the morning is "What are we doing to contribute to ensure that people can live in homes in our communities?".

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