Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I welcome the opportunity to raise this important matter on behalf of the residents of Birch Hill, Aghadoe and Old Killarney Village. A total of 68 houses, one pub and restaurant and a commercial business are affected by what is happening. I ask that additional funding be provided to remove and replace three non-performing wastewater treatment plants and connect to the live public sewer to take sewage to the treatment plant in Killarney. The pipe has already been brought north of the N22, which was a considerable task along a busy road from the Cleeney roundabout to the bottom of Madam's Hill north of the N22. The dangerous and tough work has been done efficiently and effectively at night by the contractors John McGillycuddy and John Donovan. The latter brought the sewage to his estate, which has been built since. All that needs to be done is to connect to that.

Funding of €401,588 was provided on 21 September 2020. Much has changed since then and this funding is no longer adequate. I am asking for additional funding to ensure this work goes ahead. Kerry County Council has done great work. Tadhg Meehan, Paul Neary and Charlie O'Leary are very able men who have done their best to try to get this over the line. However, the route they were trying to take the pipe or thought it could be taken could not be obtained. They have to take it a longer way around, which will cost more. In 2020, things were much cheaper. The design was much cheaper. We do not know the exact figure but the cost will be almost twice the amount that was granted.

I did not agree with a lot that the former Minister, John Gormley, did in this time. However, one good thing he insisted on and for which he brought a Bill through the Dáil was that estates would have to be taken in charge. These housing estates are typical examples. They were built more than 20 years ago. The residents are very worried because the council's environment section is out to them continuously due to serious pollution problems. The Minister of State can imagine where it is. It is on the top of Aghadoe, looking down on the lakes of Killarney. Anything that goes wrong has to go into the lakes. This request has been ongoing for many years. I raised it several times on Kerry County Council before I left in 2016. Councillor Maura Healy-Rae repeatedly tables motions on the issue. Everyone is doing their best, but Kerry County Council and I realise that we need a lot more money. I am asking the Minister to look at this. If we are serious about pollution and protecting health, we have to address this issue. There are 68 houses affected. I appeal to the Minister of State to give us the extra funding to allow this project to go ahead.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. I am taking this Topical Issue matter on behalf of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

The Department has been in contact with Kerry County Council directly on the matter of Old Killarney Village and Birch Hill estate. I understand a report and submission are being prepared by the council.

I am assured by the Department that upon receipt of that submission, the matter will be dealt with as quickly as possible. I would be surprised or concerned if the cost had doubled in the period since 2020. Of course, there has been construction inflation but I would sound that note of caution. The Department has committed to addressing it when the submission is received.

The Deputy is right. The taking in charge of housing estates by local authorities is provided for by the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended. The prescribed process in that regard applies to residential developments consisting of two or more dwellings granted planning permission under section 34 of the Act. Local authorities as planning authorities lead the taking-in-charge process of housing estates.

A small number of estates nationally rely on developer-provided water services infrastructure, commonly referred to as DPI, for their water services. They mainly consist of wastewater treatment facilities but a small number provide drinking water services for the estate. The infrastructure was generally provided by the developer of the estate and has not been connected to the public water network. The majority of estates with DPI were constructed in the period from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s and are privately-owned facilities. As the Deputy said, there are legacy issues. The Department of Housing, Heritage and Local Government introduced the multi-annual developer-provided water service infrastructure resolution programme to provide funding for the progressive resolution of these legacy issues.

In 2020, funding allocations under the programme were announced, including funding for the Old Killarney Village and Birch Hill estates, totalling approximately €401,000. The focus of the first tranche of funding under the programme is on estates where the resolution is to connect their water services to public networks. A study completed by Uisce Éireann in 2022 will inform and assist in developing further solutions for estates where, due to distance, it is not necessarily viable to connect them to the public network. The Department has been in direct contact with Kerry County Council on this matter, specifically with regard to Old Killarney Village and Birch Hill estates. My understanding is that a report is being prepared by the council. I do not have the timing of that but the Department assures me that upon receipt of that submission, it will deal with it as quickly as possible.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I know the request is to come from Kerry County Council but I know how this works. The local authority will not request funding unless it is assured it will get it because it does not want to embarrass the Government. The Government has to give it the indication that the money will be forthcoming.

We appreciate everything that has been done but it is time to move on. The Minister mentioned that other solutions would be provided when the distance is too great but the distance is not too great in this case. The big work has been done bringing the pipe north of the N22, which was vital. I commend John Donovan for doing this at his own expense. At that time, we sought help from the local authority but we did not get it. We are where we are. The residents paid money for their houses. They did not know there was any problem. They paid whatever charges the developer included at that time and they want this problem resolved. Perhaps some of them want to sell but are tied up in a knot with this. Other people will not move in until this matter is resolved.

There are odours at times and officials from the environment section have been out. The residents are worried and it is time to resolve this issue. I appeal to the Government. I am glad that so much will be given but we still need the money. The Minister of State wonders why the cost is going up. It is going up because the distance has increased. Instead of getting way leave from private property, which was not forthcoming, they had to go around the longer way. I can understand why people would not want a public sewer by the side of their houses. Surely the Government can understand that as well. It will cost more because of that and because building costs have increased in recent times with the cost of materials and labour. I appeal to the Government to address this and work with Kerry County Council.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I appreciate the points made by the Deputy, which is why it is so important that a detailed submission is made by the council. We all understand the construction price inflation issues that are there but it concerns any additional costs that are different from the proposal that was granted funding at an earlier stage. As Minister of State in the Department of Finance, I am not in a position to commit to funding on behalf of any other Department. More broadly, it is important that funding requirements are set out by local authorities in a detailed way to Departments. This is the way it must work. The Department has a multi-annual programme in place to resolve a number of these issues through a series of funding cycles and funding has already been committed to Kerry County Council, as announced previously. The commitment to resolving the programme is there but the local authority must provide detailed costs to the Department. I know the Deputy knows the report is being developed, which is very important.

In addition to the multi-annual programme, there are a number of more complex demonstration projects that require further examination. Those projects have been considered by an independent expert panel and were found to require further information from local authorities to inform a decision before a funding commitment was made under the multi-annual programme. Local authorities were asked to submit further applications for projects that could have problems resolved by connecting to Uisce Éireann. A number of applications were made. In the coming weeks, the expert panel will made a submission on these applications and the Minister will then be in a position to make an announcement for a further tranche of funding. I hope this is helpful to the Deputy.