John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I compliment my Green Party colleagues on bringing forward the motion. It is an important and timely discussion on water services. We have had yesterday's announcement on the waiving of connection charges for domestic wastewater and water connection charges to try to unlock and speed up the development of housing. The same logic applies here in the development of public water bottle refill bottle refill stations. Thankfully, in my county of Waterford we have had the roll-out of some provision. Waterford has a fantastic greenway that is used by many people. The roll-out of further stations along that and in many other public open spaces would be hugely welcome. I come from a physical education background. I always had my water bottle in my hand in class and I carried it around the school. It is important that we lead by example in trying to reduce the use of single-use plastics.

While I have the opportunity, I will diverge slightly if the Acting Chairperson will allow me some discretion. My query relates to connection charges and the structure that is in place for connecting to buildings that are being repurposed for another use. The Manor Hill development in Waterford city is being done under the repair and lease scheme. Everyone who has visited this has said it is an extraordinary scheme being developed for those aged over 55. It was a former nursing home and it had all of the water and wastewater connections in place.If the developer had reopened the site as a nursing home, no charges would have applied because all the infrastructure was already there. However, because a planning application was required to convert it into 71 residential units, there were suddenly 71 new connection charges. It is not fair that this should arise in respect of a brownfield site that is being repurposed for housing. It may be applicable for a greenfield site but it absolutely should not apply where the infrastructure is already in place. I ask the Minister of State to assist his colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, in taking up and working on this issue.