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Dáil
‹ Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation

Irish Water local projects

Summary

Deputy Cairns raised long-delayed Irish Water problems in several communities, including flooding, odours and unsafe green space. The Tánaiste said he would pass the locations to the Minister and seek a written response, noting next year's capital budget increase.

Many works need to be done by Irish Water. Despite it being a semi-State body, the State seems to abdicate all responsibility to Irish Water. I recently asked Irish Water who is responsible and it informed me that at the end of the day, the State is. Some urgent issues have gone unaddressed for years. Shannonvale has a green space that used to be the heart of the village but now it is unsafe and unusable because of a treatment plant that floods the area consistently. In Belgooly, malodours from the waste water treatment plant are so bad, people have to keep their windows closed. Many people want to move from there, but the value of their homes has decreased as a result.

The Glengarriff road in Bantry, the gateway to the Wild Atlantic Way and the main road into the tourism town of the year, is so bad it is damaging cars but road works cannot go ahead until Irish Water completes its works first. None of these projects are on its capital investment programme, meaning they simply will not be done. At what point will the State intervene?

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Leo Varadkar The Tánaiste Fine Gael

While I am familiar with all those places, I am not familiar with any of the particular Irish Water projects in them. I will certainly inform the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, that the Deputy raised them in the Chamber today. I will see if he can provide a written response as soon as possible.

Next year Irish Water will get a significant increase in its capital budget, giving it more resources to invest. That does not mean that every project that needs to be done can be done next year or the following year, but it means that more of them can be done.

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