Limerick water services and housing
Deputy O'Donoghue presses for funding for sewerage and water services in County Limerick so housing and infrastructure can proceed, saying local promises have been delayed for decades. The Taoiseach says Irish Water has a large capital programme, prioritises the sites that can deliver most housing, and is willing to discuss extra funding, but says the main constraints are now planning and delivery rather than money.
I thank the Taoiseach, but what is he going to tell the people in Askeaton, Oola, Hospital, Kilfinnane, Dromcolliher, Patrickswell, Ballingarry, Abbeyfeale and many more places around County Limerick given those promises were made 40 years ago to upgrade sewerage systems so that we could build houses and infrastructure? I accept that the Taoiseach said money is available now, but will he give it to Limerick so we can build houses?
Recently, funding of €2 million was given to Limerick for specific projects. Just €25,000 of that €2 million budget came to the county and the rest went to the city. Where is the equality between Limerick county and city to allow us to build? When the Government gives Limerick the money for infrastructure, I will build houses. There will be local employment for everyone to build houses and we will give the Government recognition for it, but first it has to give us the funds to do it, and it has not done that in the past 40 years.
Comment on this
Irish Water has a capital programme of over €1 billion a year, and it is there to provide water and wastewater to free up lands for housing. Understandably, it prioritises those sites where the most housing can be delivered first, and that makes sense from my point of view. There is a specific programme for small towns and villages to allow them to have the water services they need to allow for a natural increase.
Comment on this
I believe every town and village should be able to increase its population and have a natural increase. We will be sitting down with Irish Water over the course of the year to see whether we can provide it with additional funding to service more sites but, as I said earlier, the bottlenecks we face in Ireland are no longer a lack of money. We have never had a bigger budget for housing than we have now. We have never had a bigger budget for health than we have now. We have never had a bigger budget for investment in public infrastructure than we have now. The constraints are different ones. They are planning, the availability of labour and the availability of materials, and they are the bottlenecks we need to solve.
Comment on this
You do not need planning for infrastructure.