Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion and providing us with an opportunity to speak on it. Sinn Féin is asking for three basic things. The first is clarification from the Government on its plan for funding the infrastructure that is necessary, as has been identified by so many organisations on the ground. The second is the implementation of the Housing Commission report, at least in respect of the housing delivery oversight executive, underpinned by legislation. The third is the adequate resourcing of the planning system. I will start with that last issue.

I understood, from listening to the many debates on the planning legislation that the Government put through the House, that at any given time, there are approximately 500 vacancies in the planning system throughout the country. I have asked repeatedly to be corrected if I am incorrect, but that is the figure that has been used repeatedly by different bodies on the ground. Imagine trying to run an effective planning system with 500 vacancies nationally. The Minister of State might address that point.

On infrastructure, I will speak parochially to illustrate a point. Galway is one of five cities destined to grow. The Minister of State is familiar with it. However, the city cannot grow. It has been identified as a growth city in the national planning framework and has the capacity to provide regional development. I will home in on those two issues. Galway city cannot grow, as was pointed out by my Sinn Féin colleague from Galway. There is no plan in existence for a wastewater treatment plant on the east side of the city. The wastewater treatment that is there is defective. I previously quoted from an engineer's report that refers to two syphons under the Corrib Estuary, which is in the middle of the town, one of which is in imminent danger of collapse. That is another issue I have repeated ad nauseam.

I also repeat that we cannot have balanced regional development within the county because we have no wastewater treatment plant in Carraroe. There are no plans for any type of small or medium estate in the Gaeltacht area because there is no wastewater treatment plant. That was something Uisce Éireann inherited but I do not know why it has not prioritised it. To talk about building houses in a planned and sustained way without the basic infrastructure is a mockery.

It is mockery to turn it into a boxing match involving Uisce Éireann when it was designated, without funding and without guidance from Dublin, that this infrastructure was critical to implementing our national planning framework and national plan and to give meaning to our words. There are no plans for the east side of Galway, so that part of the city cannot be developed. In Connemara, there is absolutely nothing in the context of a wastewater treatment plant for Carraroe, with séarachas amh ag dul díreach isteach san uisce. Raw sewage is going in. Since I was elected in 1999 - this is my 25th year as an elected representative, unfortunately - that has been the position. I watch with absolute dismay.

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