Cabinet Committees
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-16
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Pádraig O'Sullivan (FF), Cork North-Central

When I last raised the issue of Carrignavar the Ceann Comhairle was in the Chair as well, so I do appreciate the time. Like Deputy O'Meara, I want to talk about Irish Water and its inability to deliver infrastructure at the rate that is needed. I point consistently to Glenville, Carrignavar and Knockraha in my constituency. The story is kind of the same. We are providing record investment in Irish Water and we are seeing very little return. Of the 37 projects identified by Cork County Council, about four years ago at this stage, six were allocated funding. The vast majority of them have not even been initiated and, as I said, this malaise continues.
I got excited when I found out that we were reintroducing developer-led infrastructure. I said, "Jesus, we might have a chance at getting a house in Carrignavar some time in the next decade." Unfortunately, like the announcement about Glenville a couple of weeks ago, the only thing that is happening is that because the existing plants are so deficient, and in the case of Carrignavar three times overloaded, the plan is to introduce a modular wastewater treatment plant, which will essentially make them compliant with the existing waste they are treating at the moment. From what I have been told, it will not, in all likelihood, allow for any expansion.
These communities, which are small villages within ten minutes of the city centre, are facing being locked out of development at any meaningful level for next decade. Irish Water is telling us it takes on average seven years to deliver a new treatment plant by the time it goes through all the necessary procurement, environmental assessments and so on. We need to get real with ourselves and have a reality check. We need to ask ourselves whether that is acceptable in this day and age. I have not even got on to Knockraha because I am out of time but I would appreciate some glimmer of hope that those villages will be able to progress and develop in the future.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-16