Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I am glad to have the opportunity to raise the very serious plight of people in Knight’s Mountain, Knocknagashel and Lyracrumpane, which are beside one another. They have very little water. In fact, their wells are now obsolete because the water is undrinkable. When you pour the water out of them, it is like a cup of coffee. It has gone brown and they just cannot drink it anymore. There are up to 18 houses involved. The cost of the group extension is too prohibitive. In this instance, where the supply line is 4.8 km away, the cost of the overall scheme would be €720,000. This price was given two years ago, so it would be more expensive now. I understand there are up to 18 houses is involved. Each would have to contribute somewhere between €38,000 or €39,000 and €45,000, which is totally prohibitive.

There are two more affected places in Gneevgullia, namely from Knocknaseed to Banard and from Coom over to Banard, where five and seven affected houses, respectively, cannot get a connection because the cost of the group scheme is too prohibitive.

There are also high areas up in Castleisland where the pressure goes down in the summertime, making water scarce. These include Dooneen, Crag, Churchtown and Glounsharoon. These people suffer from very low water pressure every year when water gets scarce later in the summer. All they are asking for is a mile of an extension to where there is an adequate supply coming from the Brosna side. For years, they have been asking for this but they have been left behind.

Will the Minister of State, Deputy O’Sullivan, consider very seriously doing something for these people? Water is a basic human right. We can remember when houses were without water for four, five or six days a few weeks ago, which was terrible, but can you imagine being without water all day every day, week after week? The people at Knight’s Mountain tried to get the group scheme going in 2022 and the price they got at the time was €720,000. Even after the grant, they would have to pay up to €45,000 per house. That is not on at all. We must help the people. Kerry County Council is the local authority that administers the group water schemes. This has to be done to Irish Water’s standards, which require top-standard work. That is insisted upon. The cost is so prohibitive that the Government will have to do something, perhaps helping the people to lay the main themselves. These roads are very quiet and those concerned could work along the sides of the roads themselves. The Government should please do something to help these people to get going and ensure they have water.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Healy-Rae for raising these two important matters, which we will try to address today.

First, I will outline some of the schemes that are available. I appreciate the Deputy has pointed out what the cost might be per household, but it might be helpful to outline what is available. There are a number of grants available, through the local authorities, under the Department’s rural water programme to support householders in carrying out improvement works to their private water supplies.

The amount of grant funding available to households is as follows. There is 85% of the approved costs for a new well, subject to a maximum grant of €5,000, and the Deputy outlined that there are issues with wells in this area in terms of the water quality that is provided. There is 85% of the approved costs for well rehabilitation works, subject to a maximum grant of €3,000. That is if a grant is well in place already. Then there is 100% of the approved costs for works that are necessary to treat the water to meet the water quality standards set out in the drinking water regulations, subject to a maximum grant of €1,000.

There are also nine individual funding measures under the most recent cycle of the multi-annual water programme, which covers the period 2024-26. Each funding measure is directed at a specific activity - for example, source protection, water treatment, network improvements, etc. Two measures are focused on the provision of safe and secure piped water supply to those households currently without such a supply where it is technically and economically viable to do so. Under the programme, these measures are measure A5 and measure A7.

Measure A5 provides funding support for extensions to existing group water schemes and the development of new stand-alone group water schemes. The measure supports the continued expansion of piped water supplies to those parts of the rural population that cannot be served by public water supplies. The grant funding available is 85% of the cost of necessary and approved works, subject to a maximum of €15,000 per household.

Measure A7 provides funding for community water connections. This measure too supports the continued expansion of piped water supplies to those parts of the rural population reliant on private wells that can be served by the public Uisce Éireann water supplies. The funding provided under this measure enables Uisce Éireann to take in charge a network constructed to an appropriate standard. The amount of grant funding available is 85% of the cost of necessary and approved works subject, again, to a maximum of €15,000 per house connected.

My Department is committed to delivering improvements to water services in areas of rural Ireland where there are no public services. In respect of the public water supply aspect raised by the Deputy, Uisce Éireann has confirmed that Lyracrumpane is a scheme that it is currently upgrading. However, Uisce Éireann outlined that it has not received any notifications of any supply issues in this area. In addition, Uisce Éireann confirmed that Knight's Mountain, Knockariddera, is not currently part of any scheme and there are no plans in place to extend to this area. Both Gneevgullia and Castleisland are part of the central regional Lough Guitane supply, where there is ample capacity. Some of Uisce Éireann's team are currently working on replacing 3 km of water mains from the reservoir in Castleisland to the town as part of its mains rehabilitation programme. However, Uisce Éireann is not aware of any pressure issues on the Castleisland supply.

That may contradict some of what the Deputy says about the issues people are facing in the regions of Kerry he talks about in terms of supply issues and the cost per house. I agree with what he said in his opening statements: basic running water should be a right of any human being and any household. I will absolutely undertake to take back the issues he has raised today. Clearly, Uisce Éireann says that it has no reports of people raising issues in that area, so I urge anyone in the area to contact Uisce Éireann - there is a helpline they can contact - and report any underlying issues they have. We have in our Department a section that deals directly with Uisce Éireann. I will undertake to raise the issues the Deputy has raised here and ensure that he gets an adequate and proper response, especially if he is saying that households will have to fork out in the region of €45,000. That cannot happen. That is not acceptable.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I hear the Minister of State say that Uisce Éireann has not heard anything and knows nothing about this. I did mention to him that it is Kerry County Council that has the responsibility in the first place for group water schemes and to administer those schemes. I am kind of amazed that Kerry County Council has not liaised with Uisce Éireann in this case, but the facts are as I have outlined to the Minister of State very clearly. These people, especially those in Lyracrumpane, applied back in 2022 and they failed to get it going. The Minister of State said there is a grant of up to €15,000, but he never said there is a minimum requirement of having 25 houses. What about the seven, five and 18 houses I have mentioned? There are several others like them. The smaller number must be considered as well, and 18 is almost there in my book, but we cannot have that everywhere.

I am amazed also that Irish Water is not aware of the pressure problems up in the higher areas of Castleisland. I know it is doing works, but that is going a different way. It is going into the town, where there was a massive amount of breaks from Ballymacadam and down through the Main Street in Castleisland. That is dealing with a different issue, but the areas up in Crag have no drop of water for half the summer every year. I am asking the Department to go back and get Kerry County Council to liaise with Irish Water if that makes a difference. However, it is Kerry County Council that is responsible for the group water scheme and its provision and to make it more friendly for the people who need water to do something. This minimum of 26 houses cannot be entertained when five or seven houses and 18 houses do not have any water and where their wells went wrong. These people have done everything possible. They have drilled wells in different places and so on and they do not have drinking water at present. I am asking the Minister of State to do something about this in this Government's time.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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I completely appreciate where Deputy Healy-Rae is coming from on this. I reiterate that under the recent review of the rural water programme, the amount per household was increased from €9,000 to €15,000, but I accept that there has to be some degree of flexibility, especially when a smaller number of houses are impacted. That is something that I will relay back to the Department. This is not just an issue in Kerry. There are areas in my area as well, in west Cork, where we have seen pressure issues in particular where there is break after break and we see that Uisce Éireann will replace the next section and then it just moves the problem down the line. What is needed in many of these situations is a substantial overhaul of the water supply. I can tell the Deputy - and this is serious; I am not making light of it - that people in certain parts of Lissavard, in particular, and Rathbarry were happy to see the Healy-Rae vans on site a number of years ago when they were in replacing the pipe network in and around there. The problem was solved and it was fantastic. However, these black spots exist right around west Cork and, obviously, in Kerry. There has to be a programme of replacing these pipes in order that we sort out the water pressure issue. I will take back the Deputy's point about the group water schemes and the fact that where there are smaller groups of houses they seem to be left out of these group water scheme programmes. However, €15,000 is a significant amount per household, but, obviously, if it is an issue where they do not have-----

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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You would need €45,000. It is no good.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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If it is an issue where the necessity is for 25 houses and some areas are being left out, that is something I will undertake to take back to the Department and see if it can be investigated and see if there can be some level of flexibility in these areas of Kerry. I know how frustrating it can be not to have a decent, adequate water supply. Urban areas never have any issue with water supply. I will take the comments back, and I thank the Deputy for raising this again.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State. I do appreciate that he will see after west Cork, but I am asking him now, seeing as he is in the position, to see after Knocknagashel, Knight's Mountain and other places in Gneevgullia, and Crag, in Castleisland. I am depending on him to see after those places now for me.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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It was the Healy-Raes who saw after us in the end.