Irish Water and Water Quality: Statements
Seanad Éireann — 2025-11-19
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Joanne Collins (SF), Agricultural Panel

I welcome the Minister of State. I have spoken a lot in the House about the lack of water in county towns. It sounds awful but it gives me some relief to hear it is not just County Limerick that has this issue. In the only county town or tier 2 town in Limerick, Newcastle West, houses have stopped being built. A development had to be stopped and the doors closed to people because it could not be connected up to the system. It will be 2031 before the wastewater treatment system can take another connection. That is six years until another house can be built in the county town of Limerick. It is absolutely crazy.
I am delighted to hear in the latest report about the money going into Irish Water. That will be amazing but I plead with the Minister of State not to let the €12.2 billion go just to Dublin and the east coast. We need it in Limerick, Cork and Galway on the west coast. We also need it in Laois. Senator McCormack stated that nearly every town in that county as being at capacity. It is the same in every county. We need that money to be distributed equally and on a priority basis. It is unfathomable that we have a Department that is supposed to look after water but which is not doing so and not ensuring it gets to where it needs to needs to go.
There are areas in this country where people cannot connect to water and must drill their own well. There are no connections and no group water schemes. Drilling a well will cost between €7,000 and €10,000, depending on how deep it is necessary to go. There is no grant system for that. However, if a millionaire living a couple of miles away on a street where there is water wants to put in his or her own well, if the house is not a new build, there is a grant for that person. It would be nice to see a grant available for new construction for people living in areas where there is no water connection.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-11-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:20+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-11-19