Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir as an ábhar tábhachtach seo a ardú. I thank the Senator for raising this issue and providing me with the opportunity to address it, on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Unfortunately, he cannot be here to address the issue.

Local authorities, as planning authorities, lead the taking in charge process of housing estates. The taking in charge of housing estates by local authorities is provided for by the Planning and Development Act.

A small subset of estates nationally that are not taken in charge rely on developer provided water services infrastructure for their water services. This mainly consists of wastewater treatment facilities but a small number provide drinking water services for the estate. This infrastructure was generally provided by the developer of the estate and is not connected to the public water services network. They are privately owned facilities.

In 2019, the Department introduced the multi-annual developer provided water services infrastructure resolution programme to provide funding for the progressive resolution of these housing estates with these legacy issues. The focus of the first multi-annual programme is on estates in towns and villages where the resolution is to connect their water services to the local Irish Water network. This will enable Irish Water to take responsibility for the ongoing operation and management of the water service in the estate once the estate is taken in charge by the planning authority.

In September 2020, the Minister announced allocations of just over €3.36 million for 26 estates across ten counties with almost 950 households to benefit, under the new multi-annual programme, to enable the taking in charge of these estates. A study is being carried out by Irish Water to develop the best solutions for estates with legacy developer provided water services infrastructure. The study will help the Department with developing policy solutions, including issues around funding, for estates, such as the one referenced by the Senator, that due to distance and size are not viable to connect to the public network. This is by considering sustainable treatment technologies either on the same site or another suitable alternative site. I understand the study is expected to be completed by the summer.

It will take a number of funding programmes to fully resolve these estates. The Department is committed to progressing the taking in charge of these legacy estates through increased funding over the coming years.

The Department is supporting the progressive taking in charge of estates with developer provided wastewater infrastructure. Funding of €68.5 million has been secured under the national development plan for this programme and lead pipe remediation to underpin this support.