Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is good to see the Acting Leader in the role today. I would like to further analyse and discuss budget 2025. I am particularly pleased there is a significant commitment to investing in wastewater and in upgrading wastewater systems throughout the country. This is one of the big problems in planning and building houses, particularly in rural parts of the country. We are putting through a planning Bill that will deal significantly with the judicial review delays which, in County Clare alone, have held up 290 houses in Ennis for years. It has gone before the courts although permission was granted by Clare County Council and An Bord Pleanála. The planning Bill is important and the other big issue is wastewater treatment.

I look at County Clare as a typical example of counties the length and breadth of the country. I sat in the office of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, in October or November 2020. We were promised a pilot scheme for small villages of approximately €50 million. The scheme was announced three years later and two projects in Clare were selected. So far, four years on, not one sod has been turned in either Broadford or Cooraclare. Broadford people have spent a significant amount of time and money preparing for the scheme. When the scheme is completed, houses will be built. It is similar in Cooraclare and Carrigaholt, where development is considered premature in the absence of an upgraded wastewater treatment system. Doolin in County Clare is probably one of the busiest tourist attraction areas in the country. It is from where most people travel to the Aran Islands. People are trying to build houses and hotel accommodation in Doolin but all are deemed premature simply because the wastewater treatment system is not up to standard.

Billions need to be spent on the wastewater system in this country. I welcome the fact that some of the Apple money will be dedicated to it. I would like to see a timeline. I would like to request of the Acting Leader that we have the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in the Seanad to outline his revised plans and timelines and the projects he will fund through Irish Water for 2025, 2026 and 2027. If we are to keep developing our economy in the manner in which it has developed, and if we want to meet the housing targets the Taoiseach has mentioned of 50,000 a year for the next five years, it will only happen if the infrastructure is in place. It will only happen if we have upgraded wastewater treatment facilities the country. The houses cannot just be built in urban areas. They have to be built in urban and rural areas.