Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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We move to the final Topical Issue tonight and it gives me great pleasure to be in the Chair as an issue relating to my home village is being discussed.

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

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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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.

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Unfortunately, not much has changed in the response. As I said in my own piece, I firmly believe the solution to this is probably, unfortunately, going to be the private route through developer-led infrastructure. It is not ideal. Irish Water itself has resisted that process for a long time now. I hope that the Minister will make a fair fist of that and bring this to a head and not just for Carrignavar. I could probably list six or seven other villages in my own constituency. The Minister of State himself referenced in the order of 20-odd villages in his own area. This is, across the country, one of the major issues we are facing.

We are going to be the ones who will pay for it, let us be straight about it - us sitting on these benches - because the issue of the day is housing. The Minister of State does not need me to say it here. Unfortunately, we have been hamstrung for the past five years sitting over here in government. We have been complicit in this ineptitude, if I can be frank. It is very frustrating for us people on the ground who attend the community meetings and make the excuses - let us be honest about it - for Cork County Council and Irish Water, and have done for quite a while now. The solution has always been there, and after five years of lobbying, we finally have a solution. As I said, I hope the Minister actually sees it through and allows developer-led infrastructure to be delivered again in tandem with Irish Water and under its supervision. It is the only solution I can see working, such is my lack of faith in Irish Water to deliver.

In his supplementary, the Minister of State might have this information but that additional money he referenced is going to lead to a capital plan review, I understand, in the first quarter of next year. Has he any idea when that review will be completed? If he does, I would appreciate it.

On Carrignavar, as I have said, the treatment plant itself is three times overloaded.

Just north of Carrignavar, we recently had one of the largest fish kills in the country. Again, the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach will be familiar with that. How the EPA has not come down heavy on Irish Water and previously Cork County Council about the problems in Carrignavar I do not know. It is blatantly obvious to anybody. The pollution can be seen visibly seeping into the river there on a daily basis. Something has to be done urgently. This nonsense of waiting for capital plans needs to stop.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I can feel the Deputy's frustration with this particular issue. As I said, for the first time ever we have put money into Uisce Éireann, which is ring-fenced money, for it to develop new infrastructure. Since its inception, Uisce Éireann has spent a lot of its time trying to firefight existing infrastructure which was not functioning properly. In fairness, it did not get the proper money to do the job it was set up to do. That is an inherent problem and a legacy we have.

With the agreement of Uisce Éireann, we also have allowed developer-led infrastructure to be used. The developer can build a treatment plant to the specifications of Uisce Éireann, which will take it over and manage it thereafter. That is another option that is coming up.

I do not have timelines for when the reviews will happen from the Minister. I will bring the Deputy's situation and this question back to him to see what can be done. I agree that a small sum of money for towns and villages creates opportunities to build houses for people who can live in their own areas, enhance their villages and parishes and keep the community alive. It allows developers to make houses available for young people who want to live in their own areas. It is a question of getting money to develop the treatment plants that are needed. There is no mystery about them; we just need to get them done. I concur with the Deputy's feelings and will bring them back to the Minister.