Noel O'Donovan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to discuss the issue of housing, and more specifically a wastewater treatment plant in Dunmanway, west Cork. Dunmanway, my home town, is famous for being the home of Sam Maguire, even though we do not win the cup too often. For the past number of years, people have been unable to build houses in the town. Similar to the issue my colleague, Senator Murphy, raised about an area in Galway, the wastewater treatment plant is at capacity. It was built in 2013 but no longer conforms to EU discharge limits. It is a real heartbreak for the people of Dunmanway that houses cannot be built there. I have friends and family who are leaving the town because of this.

We are at a ceiling nationally of 30,000 houses and this country has great schemes, such as the help-to-buy scheme and other supports, but an infrastructural deficit is causing real issues. I welcome comments made recently by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste on the matter and that they will engage with Uisce Éireann. I ask the Leader to raise the issue of increased funding for Uisce Éireann with senior Government officials, which I have always asked for during my debates in the House.

With increased funding, the mechanism of delivery of these capital projects needs to be looked at again. There are strategic business analyses and planning assessments but the five-to-seven-year completion rate for these projects needs to be looked at. It is not just a case of giving more money to Uisce Éireann; we need to look at these processes again. I want to put the House on notice that I would like to raise a Commencement matter on this subject next week. For the people of Dunmanway in the area I represent, it is destroying our rural towns and villages. Some 50,000 people live within 30 minutes of Dunmanway, and that population could be much greater if we got the infrastructure projects right.