Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)

I thank the Deputy for the question. In County Galway, we have 30 villages without any treatment plant, so I empathise with him.

Uisce Éireann has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation. Neither I, nor the Minister, Deputy Browne, who offers his apologies as he cannot be here this evening for this question, have an operational function in the matter to which the Deputy refers. However, we have asked Uisce Éireann for an update on the Deputy's behalf.

Uisce Éireann has made significant investments in upgrading wastewater treatment infrastructure across Cork since 2014. However, it is important to note that it is dealing with a legacy of underinvestment in water services and infrastructure across Ireland. The scale of the remedial work necessary in our water and wastewater systems will take a number years and investment cycles to fully resolve.

The upgrade of the Carrignavar wastewater treatment plant will come under Uisce Éireann’s small towns and villages growth programme, which is a national programme to cater for growth in smaller towns and villages within existing Uisce Éireann infrastructure. This programme is delivered in partnership with local authorities and is aligned with the county development plans. Each local authority is responsible for prioritising candidate settlements for investment under the programme. Carrignavar was not included in Cork County Council’s list of prioritised sites for upgrade under the scheme for the 2020 to 2024 capital investment plan. Local authorities were asked to review the ranking of candidate settlements in their area in 2023. Cork County Council has Carrignavar currently ranked at no.13 in the list of candidate settlements. Schemes ranked 1 to 7 in Cork are currently progressing under the programme.

Due to the scale of projects already confirmed in Cork and nationally and Carrignavar’s relative position on the priority list, a project to expand capacity at the local treatment plant has not been included in the 2025 to 2029 plan. However, €2 billion has been set aside under the national development plan to support housing delivery, which includes €300 million for the enhancement of that small towns and villages growth programme. Uisce Éireann will continue to engage with Cork County Council under the scheme and there may be opportunities for the council to reprioritise the scheme relative to other sites on this list under the capital investment plan for 2025 to 2029. Additional money of €2 billion has been ring-fenced for new infrastructure and it is important that Cork County Council re-engages with Uisce Éireann at this stage to see how it can bring this project forward, following on from what the Deputy has described to me.

See this speech in context