Galway housing and wastewater
Deputy Connolly criticised slow housing delivery in Galway and raised wastewater infrastructure as a major obstacle. The Taoiseach said he had met city and county managers, would meet them again, and that Irish Water would be resourced to help address the problem.
I will stay with the theme of housing and, in particular, the emergency task force that was set up in Galway in 2019. At the end of last year, during the last meeting for which I have minutes, the new chair said the delivery to date is "not a happy picture". This was referring to the failure to deliver housing in Galway city and county.
Lots of issues and obstacles were raised. One is the lack of wastewater infrastructure in the county and on the east side of the city. I have used every opportunity to raise this issue on the floor of the Dáil. Five years after the task force was set up, it has told us that housing delivery is going the wrong way, and it is finally beginning to look at the obstacles. One is the failure to resource Irish Water and to ensure Galway is top of its list of targets as a city that has been picked as one of the five destined to grow. No housing development can take place in the Gaeltacht or in east Galway because there is no wastewater treatment.
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I was in Galway recently. I met the county and city managers. I have agreed to meet both of them for a more detailed discussion around development issues-----
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I am talking to TDs. I will meet you as well. I do not want to have 25 people arriving in again and we all chatting and everyone saying the same thing.
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There are not 25 TDs in Galway.
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I have met TDs and I will meet TDs. I have just said that I met the county and city managers because there are a lot of objections in Galway to housing developments. On the water question, Irish Water will be resourced and has been resourced. Increased resources will be allocated to Irish Water under the national development plan. I am fully aware of the issues around wastewater treatment in Galway. We will work to address that.