Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Collins for raising that issue on behalf of the people of Limerick and specifically the people of Newcastle West, which is a fantastic town. Unfortunately, it is another one of these towns and villages that have been stymied or where development has been stopped because of a lack of infrastructure.Especially from an Uisce Éireann point of view, wastewater in particular has been a barrier to development in a lot of these towns. I will come back to that later. I will first set out the general housing outlook for Limerick county in particular and then I will come back to the specific point about Newcastle West.

Turning first to social housing, Limerick City and County Council has delivered 1,092 new-build social homes since 2022 and 228 of these were local authority built homes in the Adare-Rathkeale, Newcastle West and Cappamore-Kilmallock municipal districts. My Department is also aware of two repair and lease projects in Newcastle West, which will provide a total of nine homes for social housing tenants following the completion of renovation works later this year. The latest social housing construction status report shows that there were 717 homes on site and at various stages of design and procurement in Limerick at the end of quarter 4 of 2024.

Affordability and the chance to own a home is at the heart of the Government’s housing policy. Since the launch of Housing for All to December 2024, 445 affordable housing supports have been delivered in Limerick. Affordable housing schemes are now operating at scale and this momentum will continue as the pipeline is developed by local authorities, including Limerick City and County Council, approved housing bodies and the Land Development Agency.

Limerick City and County Council is continuing to develop its affordable housing programme. To date a number of schemes have been delivered across the county, including 21 affordable purchase homes at Woodfield Manor, Newcastle West, in 2023, seven four-bedroom affordable purchase homes at Castle Place, Newcastle West, in 2024, and a further 60 affordable purchase homes approved for delivery across three sites by the end of 2026. To further support Limerick City and County Council’s affordable housing programme, my Department has provided funding for eight dedicated administrative and technical staffing posts.

The Mayor of Limerick can also engage with Ministers on a range of policy issues through a consultative forum. The first forum was held last March and had housing on the agenda. Another forum will be held in the autumn. The mayor is also working closely with my Department on a number of housing initiatives set out in his mayoral programme, which sets out the key objectives for his five-year term.

On infrastructure needs, Uisce Éireann is in the process of developing a transformative water and wastewater service for Limerick. This involves the upgrade of the existing wastewater treatment plant in Limerick and the provision of a regional bioresource centre at the site. This will be a strategic enabler crucial for urban and regional economic growth while managing water, wastewater and environmental resources sustainably. The project is currently at the preliminary business case stage and is expected to be brought to Government for approval later this year.

To address barriers to the delivery of public infrastructure projects needed to enable housing development, the Government has established a new housing activation office in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The HAO will engage and align key stakeholders, including local authorities, utility and infrastructure providers to ensure that barriers to the delivery of public infrastructure projects are addressed in a co-ordinated way.

In the time I have left I will discuss the specific point that the Senator made about Newcastle West. It is frustrating. The Senator gave two timelines - 2028 and 2031 - in terms of being able to connect to wastewater or a water connection. I can understand the frustration because the timelines are a number of years away and people need houses now in Newcastle West. The key focus of the housing activation office and the reason it was set up is to remove these types of barriers and get all bodies into one room, be it a local authority, Uisce Éireann and whichever other authorities are involved in delivering this type of infrastructure, and bang heads together and remove those impediments. That is going to be key in terms of bringing forward the timelines mentioned by the Senator.