Noel O'Donovan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and the students in the Visitors Gallery to the House. I hope they enjoy their moment watching us debate issues that are really important for our areas and for this country. I welcome the Minister of State and his appointment to the role. He is a model for many in this Chamber in how he does politics and his success is an ambition for all of us.

In one of my first contributions in this House, I spoke on an issue close to my heart, which is the issue of the wastewater treatment plant in Dunmanway. Dunmanway is my hometown, it is where I went to school and it is where many of my friends and family live close by. The town is at a real crossroads regarding development, however. To be truthful, it has gone backwards. You currently cannot build a house in Dunmanway due to issues with the wastewater treatment plant. This is significant for me and the people of Dunmanway because the town cannot grow or prosper. It is a well-known figure locally that 50,000 people live within 30 minutes of Dunmanway. That is a really big figure. Dunmanway is known as the heart of west Cork but it never had a town council and it has been widely known for many years that, while other towns in west Cork have prospered, Dunmanway has stood still. The people of Dunmanway now feel forgotten once again because they cannot build and businesses cannot expand, which is a real issue. The people are impressing upon us as local representatives to raise this in the Houses of our national Parliament.

I commend a local action group that has been working on this issue in recent years. It is made up of people in the community, in business and even developers within the town. The group has engaged with Cork County Council, with us as public representatives and with Uisce Éireann on the matter, and I have supported the action group in recent years in meeting with Uisce Éireann.

To give some background, the plant was constructed in 2013. It is not a plant that is 20 or 30 years old but is just over ten years old. It no longer conforms to EU guidelines and directions with regard to water quality, however, and we need an upgrade. It was not on the radar of Uisce Éireann for many years but, thankfully, it is now through the engagement of the local action group and us as public representatives. What we are being told is that it will take five to seven years for the delivery of this upgrade to the plant. We are at stage 1 of the delivery of this, but it will take five to seven years, and that is simply too long for the people of Dunmanway. No houses were built in the town last year and, in 2023, we saw one house built. The census figures for Dunmanway show the town has been growing in recent years but it is at a stalemate.

In quite another serious issue for the town, and it is an issue right across west Cork, we need respite for children and adults with disabilities. There has been a site earmarked in the town of Dunmanway, something which was publicised recently in local newspapers, but again, this centre cannot be developed because of issues with the wastewater treatment plant.

It is well known we have a housing crisis in this country. We are at a figure of approximately 30,000 houses constructed annually and we need to grow that significantly. I am fully sure, from listening to the action group here and meeting recently with the construction industry and developers in Cork, that infrastructure is our key issue we need to solve in this country. I know that is an issue the Minister of State will be taking seriously in his new Department.

We need to increase funding to Uisce Éireann but we also need to ensure its delivery process is made more efficient. If it is a case of giving more funding, and we are all talking about the funding arising from the Apple tax case, we must ensure the process of delivery is made more efficient. We all know what the solution is for Dunmanway but we do not want it to take five to seven years to see that solution. The town needs this. I look forward to hearing what the Minister of State has to say on this issue and I thank him for being in the Chamber today to discuss the issue with me.