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

I was going to reference that at the start. I know it is an issue close to the Chair's heart and her father's heart. It is an issue I have raised here on five or six occasions, primarily through Topical Issues. I thank the Minister of State for being here. Unfortunately, to my mind, nothing has changed after those attempts to raise this issue here in the past. For people at home who are not familiar with Carrignavar, it is a village to the north of Cork city. It is probably a ten-minute drive to the city centre. It has an awful lot going for it. A brand new special school is currently under construction. A new school replaced the old Scoil an Athar Tadhg recently and it is a phenomenal building. The secondary school is also going out for an extension and the community is also getting together to build a brand new purpose-built multisport facility under what it is hoped will be a future round of large-scale sport infrastructure fund, LSSIF, funding. It is a village that has an awful lot going for it. Its potential to grow is phenomenal. It is hoped that BusConnects will, for the first time, connect the village with a two-hour service, so it really is an up-and-coming place.

Unfortunately, because of the lack of a wastewater treatment plant - a functioning one, anyway - this village has really been stifled over the last decade or so, to the point that land zoned for housing has been dezoned in the not-so-distant past. That aspiration for the village to grow and to populate those schools and facilities is now being restricted because of Irish Water's inability to fund a much needed wastewater treatment plant. To give the Minister of State an idea, as he has served in multiple roles in this House over the years and will be well familiar with the issues in relation to Irish Water, if you take a stroll down the river at any stage to Glashaboy, you will see evidence that the wastewater treatment plant that is there is not just at capacity but is three times overloaded from its original capacity. Yet, Irish Water and the county council before, to be fair, have done nothing to upgrade the system there.

I know the plant was previously considered for funding under the small towns and villages scheme. I think it is No. 11 on a list devised by Irish Water in agreement with Cork County Council. The council previously received funding for the first five or six projects on that list. Unfortunately, Carrignavar, as I said, is No. 11. My issue is funding was received for those first five projects about two years ago at this stage. To my knowledge, none of those projects has actually turned a sod, had a new building opened, a new pump house installed or whatever the issues pertaining to those wastewater treatment plants are. At this stage, I am pleading with the State and Irish Water. I know there is going to be a capital plan review early in quarter 1 of next year. I am pleading because the State has finally stepped up. We have provided additional buildings to Irish Water and I need to see this wastewater infrastructure upgraded.

The difficulty I have, if I can be frank, is that I am not sure that I have faith in Irish Water to deliver that infrastructure. I am glad that, in recent times, the Minister has now opened the door to developer-led infrastructure once more and that is probably where the solution to this problem lies. I know the county council is currently in the middle of its development plan review and I hope development land is identified, that a suitable developer will be found and that development might be what is required to instigate growth in the village once more and provide that much-needed infrastructure. The capacity of Irish Water to deliver it has been proven. I do not think it is capable of it, so I hope the Minister of State might have an update. As I said, it is my fifth or sixth time raising it so he might surprise me with an update.

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