I raise with the Taoiseach the issue of the building of a sewerage scheme in Kilcummin, east Kerry, north of and bounding Killarney. The people in Kilcummin have been trying to progress this scheme since 2000. Work was to begin around 2006 or 2007 but the contractor was found not to be able to deliver. Thus, Kerry County Council decided to tender it out again and a new form of tender was demanded by the Department. Kerry County Council was unsure, the contractors were unsure and, anyway, the Department of Finance stopped it and withdrew the scheme in 2008 because the country was gone bust, as the Taoiseach knows well.

Promises were being made continuously, year after year, to deliver this scheme. There was money available to upgrade the road, but the road up to Kilcummin could not be resurfaced because it was anticipated the sewerage scheme would be coming down any week or any month. As it was supposed to happen very soon, the road resurfacing kept being deferred until last year, when, for the first time, the truth was told that the scheme would not go ahead in 2020, even though it was promised.

To go back to 2013, the Government of the time, including Labour, promised €1.2 million for that scheme. Promises were again made in early 2019 but I have told the Taoiseach what happened in 2020. Lo and behold, Irish Water announced last Thursday that the scheme would go ahead in late 2022, with tenders going out at that time but the sting was in the detail because three roads, involving almost 40 houses, are to be cut out of the scheme. The reason Irish Water gave was that these people did not apply for the scheme. Nothing could be further from the truth as they were never asked to apply. It gave another reason, that costs have increased, which is the truth. There is no point in it trying to blame the people.

The Taoiseach is here in his bubble every day, talking about building houses with one policy or another, and he is saying that funding is not a problem, and telling people to build in villages or towns, and not to build one-off houses out the country. The planning regulators are putting every obstacle in their way. Kilcummin is the largest parish in the country, with all streams and rivers from this area going into the lakes of Killarney. There are two nursing homes and 210 houses being accommodated, leaving out 40 houses. There are several villages in Kerry without sewerage schemes - Kilcummin, Currow, Scartaglin, Castleisland and Beaufort. Several schemes need to be extended or brought up to standard at Castleisland, Brosna, Kenmare and Fenit.

Commercial or housing developments are being halted because of these inferior schemes.

Please, please, we cannot have the litany of the saints.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue, particularly for the residents of the area and those who stand to benefit from the Kilcummin sewerage scheme. The sanctioning of the scheme is important. The Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, was very keen to allocate substantial resources to waste water treatment plants and to water infrastructure more generally because it is an important infrastructure for house construction as well as for water quality. It has been a long journey, as the Deputy has outlined, but the scheme has now been sanctioned. It has got the green light. The Deputy has said that the tenders will go out in 2022. I read about this in terms of the exclusion of 40 houses from the tender. I think it was raised at Kerry County Council recently or by local councillors. I will engage with the Minister and Oireachtas Members. I know that the Minister, Deputy Foley, will also be interested in this. We will talk to Irish Water to get submissions from the residents and see if something can be done here because when we put in infrastructure we want to make it comprehensive. We do not want to have to go back again in a few years' time to upgrade or redo it. I will have the matter investigated. I had not realised the Deputy was raising this specific issue today. Generally, we are allocating a lot of resources to our water infrastructure. We want to see good jobs done in terms of quality and in terms of covering as wide an area as possible.

The Government will have to fund Irish Water properly to develop these schemes because it is a case of live horse and you will get grass. It will not work. Leaving out the roads of Clashnagarrane, Knockataggle and Rahanane, which the village is actually built in, is absolutely ridiculous. The Taoiseach mentioned the Minister, Deputy Foley. I am saying to her that the five Deputies from Kerry need to meet. The municipal members of the Killarney municipal area want to meet the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, about this. We will not take no for an answer. It is clear that in the first place, these roads were envisaged and these houses were to be catered for, but now they are being left out of it because of money. At the same time, the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, are here. I am not being critical, but they are saying that funding is not a problem. If it is not a problem, they should make the funding available for this scheme and allow all the houses to be catered for.

All right.

God damn it, Taoiseach, you are going on for 21 years and the people of Kilcummin are honest, hard-working people and they deserve the scheme.

Thank you very much, Deputy.

We need to protect the lakes of Killarney, a Cheann Comhairle.

Thank you. Mind yourself there.

As I have said, the money is not the issue in funding water infrastructure. Very significant allocations were made in the budget this year. Deputy Kelly is endeavouring to interject. He might have some experience of this scheme going back. I will engage-----

These houses have been left out.

I know that. We will work with Irish Water.

Deputy Kenny's house is going to be left out.

Whose?

Former Taoiseach Kenny's house is going to be left out if this continues.

You are really calling on all the shots now, Deputy Healy-Rae.

That is the truth. He comes there every summer and he is welcome.

You are using every degree of leverage you can for this scheme. I have often gone through Kilcummin and we might be down there again in the summer, Covid restrictions permitting. I will talk to the Minister. We will talk to Irish Water, see what the issue is and see if we can get it resolved. You have made your point, which is valid.

We might have an official opening of the place in due course, when the scheme is finished.