Water: Statements Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21 ============================================================ Pádraig O'Sullivan (FF), Cork North-Central The Minister of State may be surprised because I am going to start by saying something positive. I commend the Minister, Deputy Browne, who has listened to people from the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael backbenches since coming to office, particularly about initiating developer-led infrastructure and facilitating future housing development. It is a no-brainer that many of us have called for for many years. Once in a while, it is good to be listened to, so I hope that listening continues. I think it is the only way to get us out of the malaise we are currently in. I welcome that initiative. That said, I will revert to my typical character. Basic communication between Uisce Éireann and others, whether county councillors or TDs, is an issue. I do not expect any special treatment. I expect that when I put in a query, I get a response. I expect to be able to meet an engineer now and again if I request it. That is not being facilitated. It is refusing outright to meet local authorities. Luckily, we meet Uisce Éireann two or three times a year. We talk about wider, broader things. I want to talk about wastewater treatment plants in individual villages. Unfortunately, the current system of communications is not good. I have often received email responses three or four months after the query initially went in to say the ticket had now been closed. I know the ticket has been closed and have known about it for weeks or months in that case. I would like to mention the Carrignavar wastewater treatment plant, because I have mentioned it about ten times since being re-elected. It is a perfect example of the lack of joined-up thinking by Uisce Éireann. I have often listened to Senator Pat Casey talk about the Arklow wastewater treatment plant, which was built for €130 million or something like that to build a couple of hundred houses a year, whereas we are looking for a treatment plant in a village that is a seven-minute drive from the city centre and has the potential to deliver hundreds of houses. It is on the new BusConnects route. It has everything going for it but we have been told it is likely to be seven years until we get that wastewater treatment plant, by the time we go through the various permissions and so on. I would also like to make a parting comment, which is about the people who primarily sit over in the corner of the Chamber allocated to Members of the Independent Technical Group. They are gone now so maybe I should not individualise them. If this was an easy fix, this would have been done a long time ago. If anybody actually talks to Uisce Éireann and is sincere in discussions with it, particularly in the northside of Cork, they will know we are talking about decades of work that need to happen, particularly with the replacement of pipes, including cast iron pipes and lead pipes. For people over there to constantly come in and suggest it is as easy as clicking fingers, writing cheques and doing the whole thing overnight is disingenuous and they need to be called out for it. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-21/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-31T01:00:51+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-21