I stated in the Dáil this week that the lack of funding of Irish Water has now become an impediment to the delivery of Irelands infrastructure including housing, schools and industrial buildings.
“There are significant areas of zoned lands where any application for planning is deemed premature as there are inadequate water/wastewater services available”.
“The timeframe it takes to get Irish Water approval for developers design of water and wastewater services to accompany planning application is too long and is delaying the lodging of planning application”.
“The development of projects are being delayed due to the long timeframe it takes getting connection to services where they are available”.
“The cost of the connections is excessive as are their terms and conditions. Examples of the lack of investment include the IDA Park in Athenry which is not serviced and therefore Industry cannot locate there, and job creation is being stifled”.
Planning for housing is now frozen in areas such as Craughwell, Athenry, Corofin and Abbeyknockmoy due to the lack of wastewater treatment plants.
“Recently, a plan to build a housing development in Athenry of over 100 houses has been stalled as Irish Water cannot provide a letter stating when the necessary pipe network will be in place”.
“There are just some examples of how the inadequate funding is prohibiting development in a time when we have a housing crisis.
“There is an over emphasis on providing services in areas of high population to the neglect of regions. This is compounded by the lack of sufficient funding to allow Irish Water do the work they have been set up to do”