Uisce Éireann funding for housing
Deputy O'Hara accused the Government of misrepresenting extra funding for Irish Water and linked the wastewater shortage to stalled housing in Galway communities. The Tánaiste rejected the claim, insisted the €1 billion was additional funding, and agreed more wastewater infrastructure was still needed.
We learned this week that the Government has again misled the public. The funding announced for Irish Water to support increased housing supply was not actually additional funding, but just a different way of funding the current programme. We have heard that directly from the chairman of Irish Water. I am sure the Tánaiste will deny that, but he cannot deny the reality on the ground.
There are many towns and villages across County Galway, such as Corofin, Ardrahan, Monivea, Abbeyknockmoy and many more, where we cannot have new housing delivery because we do not have adequate wastewater infrastructure. We have constraints on capacity in towns like Tuam. Craughwell is getting an upgrade, but it will be years before that is built.
The Government's failure to invest is stalling the delivery of new housing. When is the Government going to take this seriously and deliver improved infrastructure to enable delivery of new housing? What is it going to take? Is it going to take all of our young people leaving the country, or another 5,000 children becoming homeless? It is time to wake up and invest in housing infrastructure.
Comment on this
First, let me reject entirely the assertion with regard to the Uisce Éireann funding model. The full trawl of documents, which I have no doubt committees and others will look at, will show that the €1 billion was additional funding. Indeed, those of us who were in government at the time very much remember that. Of course, it is true to say that and also to say the next thing, which is the broader point the Deputy is getting at, that it is not going to be enough. There are towns and villages right across Ireland, rural and urban, that desperately need the water infrastructure and wastewater infrastructure as well. We have been very clear as a Government that we intend to allocate a lot more to Uisce Éireann. We have been very clear that the Apple fund, for want of a better phrase, does provide a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest. We will make decisions as a Government shortly in terms of how to move forward on that investment.
We are also bringing Irish Water to the table in the new housing activation office, which we are going to get right, because water infrastructure is a key enabler of housing to keep young people in constituencies like the Deputy's and in our country too.