Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the Minister of State. County Limerick's main county town is Newcastle West. It is a tier 2 town under the national development plan. Irish Water has advised that there has been no connection to sewerage or water as of a couple of weeks ago, when I received an email, because of construction going ahead on a site with 93 houses. Some of them had been earmarked as social and affordable houses. The site received planning permission at the end of 2023. At the beginning of 2024, 81 of the 93 houses had been commenced. Unfortunately, however, none of these houses have been finished because of the issue with water.

I have contacted Irish Water. There are three treatment plants in the vicinity. Kilcolman springs is one and Tobergal springs is another. They are in development and the outlook is that there will be some headroom for the Newcastle West supply, but not until 2028. The upgrade to Irish Water's own treatment plant in Newcastle West is still at planning and development stage. That still needs to go to tender. The agency does not expect to have anything hooked up to that until 2031. We are in the middle of a housing emergency in 2025 and this town has three rental homes as of today.

It will not only affect homes. I have also been told this will affect businesses. Any new business that comes into Newcastle West may not have a connection to water. Irish Water will take it on a case-by-case basis, dependent on the size of the development or whether it is a home or business. The only tier 2 town in the county is now in lockdown when it comes to housing.

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

Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State for outlining all that. He can remove the seven four-bedroom homes from his list because that is the development I am speaking about. Those are seven affordable and social homes that will not be in Newcastle West.

What the Minister of State outlined is great and it is great that the Government is trying to make a dent in housing but, like he said, 2031 is the year stated for the Newcastle West treatment plant. It is now 2025, so it will be six years before another development can be hooked up to water.

Last week, I heard somebody mention the Apple money and how some of that will be put into Irish Water. Will it be like the national development plan where 50% of that money stays in Dublin and 50% goes to the rest of the country? I ask because Newcastle West needs to be up on the list because it is the only tier 2 town in County Limerick. Also, County Limerick is the third largest county in the country, yet we do not seem to get the fair share of the pot that goes around.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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The Senator pointed out the funding to Uisce Éireann. The funding to Uisce Éireann has significantly been bolstered over the last number of years, and that includes the fresh money that has come in from the Apple windfall.The Senator is absolutely right that we, as a Government, need to start seeing results from that, not just in Dublin but outside Dublin as well. The rural water programme falls specifically within the remit of my Department. I am absolutely making the case to ensure that a lot of that money and investment goes out to the rural towns so we can see balanced regional development.

Coming back to the Senator's point, the situation in Newcastle West, unfortunately, is replicated right throughout Ireland. Newcastle West being a significant town in Limerick surely should put it, in terms of prioritisation, quite near the top of that list because of the significant size of the town. I will work with the water directorate within my Department, the senior Ministers and Uisce Éireann to try to look at ways of bringing forward those timelines because it is too far out. Perhaps some of the consents, some of the permits or the statutory measures that they have to run and that can be done in parallel are not sequential. That might cut time as well.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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Thank you, Minister of State, for your time. We appreciate your coming to the House. We always value Ministers coming in.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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It is always a pleasure to be here.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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You are an honorary Senator at this point.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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Do not say that too loudly.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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As there is a vote ongoing in the other House, we will have to wait for the next Minister of State to arrive . He is on his way, I understand. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, to the Seanad. I know he is an exceptionally busy man and there was a vote in the Dáil so we understand he was delayed. We appreciate him coming to the House.