The programme for Government commits to funding Irish Water's capital investment plan for water and wastewater infrastructure on a multi-annual basis. The National Development Plan 2021-2030 commits to almost €6 billion in capital investment by Irish Water in the period 2021-2025, of which more than €4.5 billion will be Voted Exchequer funding for domestic water services. As part of budget 2022, funding of more than €1.57 billion was secured to support water services. This includes €1.459 billion for domestic water…

I wish to reassure the Deputy in respect of Mitchelstown and Carrigtohill. It is important. The investment the Government has put in has been significant. We are working with Irish Water to achieve those connections. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, has published the information note on self-lay, which is an important step forward in getting competent and certified third-party contractors to work with Irish Water to pursue these projects. At the end of quarter 4, Irish Water responded to 83% of conn…

I wholeheartedly agree. These towns are certainly under pressure from the growth of Cork itself. It is critically important that our ambitions for housing delivery, as set out in Housing for All, are met and that these communities can grow and these important towns can develop and prosper. The investment we are making as a Government is a significant proportion of that effort and, critically, we are working with Irish Water to ensure there is the capacity to deliver. That is the really important part of it. It is a…

Housing for All and the Climate Action Plan 2021 take account of our climate action targets to reduce carbon emissions in the built environment though the following policies: working with industry stakeholders to increase the use of low-carbon materials and technologies in the construction and renovation of buildings in Ireland, informed by evolving EU standards and by best practice in other jurisdictions; and the implementation of nearly zero energy buildings, NZEB, through our building regulations, which will ens…

It might be worth pursuing this report at the Oireachtas joint committee. It is really important. I wholeheartedly support what the Deputy is bringing forward. There is also the sustainable products initiative, which will widen the scope of the eco-design directive to all products. It will introduce requirements relating to durability, reusability, hazardous chemicals, energy and resource efficiency, carbon and environmental footprints, and recyclable content while also ensuring the performance and safety of produc…

I agree wholeheartedly. I refer to some of the elements that are already under way in our Department, such as the targets we have set in respect of vacant and derelict properties in the coming years and targets for local authorities, as well as the work my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, is doing around Town Centre First, which are bringing a significant amount of building stock back into use. All of those initiatives will help in this regard. As regards low-carbon cement, it being the default…

It is fantastic to get a question on nature today as it is World Wildlife Day. We do not usually get them on oral questions. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Lough Hyne is a designated special area of conservation which is selected for three habitats listed in the habitats directive, as the Deputy is aware. These are large shallow inlets and bays, reefs and submerged or partially submerged sea caves. Detailed conservation objectives have been published for these habitats on the website of the National Pa…

I thank the Deputy for her questions. I will address the last question first. Specifically on this World Wildlife Day 2022, we will be announcing some measures in the partnerships that we have with Fáilte Ireland in the management of our nature reserves. Throughout the Covid-19 period we have seen a very significant demand from the public to be out in nature. That has created great pressures on our nature reserves and on our national parks. It is something that we are conscious of and in which we have invested sign…

We can certainly provide the Deputy with a specific response to that which I believe we have done previously in parliamentary questions. This is something that we have been working consistently hard on in respect of specific conservation measures for those sites. We can provide a response to the Deputy on that particular site.

I apologise on behalf of the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, as he cannot attend. Gabhaim buíochas leis an gcomhchoiste as an tuarascáil thábhachtach. I welcome the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, on the important report on key issues affecting the Traveller community. I thank the committee members and its Chair, Senator Eileen Flynn, for their comprehensive report, which raises many key issues and also makes several important rec…

I will respond to the question on the Commencement and these are additional, if that is okay. My Department has a very strong relationship with our colleagues in the OPW, with the OPW holding statutory responsibility for the day-to-day maintenance of a large number of monuments and buildings in the ownership of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. These sites can of course be complex, spanning both our built and natural heritage and equally spanning protections and controls under various pieces …

I will make inquiries on that report. I go back to my point about the good working relationship that we have with the OPW in relation to built heritage sites in its care. We are also working on a proposal for a voluntary continuous professional development scheme to equip private and public contractors with practical skills, knowledge and awareness of ecology and environmental law, as well as best practice in terms of risk management. This is something that is ongoing in our Department and we are working specifical…

I will give a general overview of disability provision and the Disability Act and then offer some possible solutions to the case the Deputy has raised. The ongoing implementation of disability-related measures has a statutory footing under the Disability Act 2005. The Act comes within the policy remit of my colleague, Deputy Rabbitte, who is Minister of State with responsibility for disability at the Department of Health and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. The Act is a legis…

A number of years ago when I was a member of Kilkenny Borough Council, an initiative was brought forward by a person who was working with people with disabilities to bring in a disabled parking bay monitoring scheme. The monitors who worked, and are still working, on the streets of Kilkenny are themselves wheelchair users. They monitor the disabled bays and report back to traffic wardens where the disabled bays are being abused or being parked in by people without disability badges. That is one scheme that was brou…

They have multiple jobs but within their brief------

-----they are looking at access all the time. Every planning application and every public realm plan is disability-proofed before it goes out for public consultation. The access group had oversight of those planning applications. That is where the strength lies at local government level, in how effective and active the access group is. I take on board the Deputy's point that they are voluntary, but they have an important role to play along with an access officer, who is in place at a senior level within the local a…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an gceist seo a ardú. We have discussed this previously and I will try to address some, if not all, of the issues the Deputy raised and, perhaps in closing, the retrofit part of it specifically. Again, I thank the Deputy for consistently raising this issue on behalf of his constituents. It is critical that we get it right for the communities that are affected by this. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien brought a memorandum to the Government on an enhanced defective concrete blo…

I take on board the points made by Deputy McHugh on independence and on taking on board the submissions in a proactive way. We will take on board the specific point on owners who have paid engineering costs. We are moving towards a full and better resolution. Deputy McHugh specifically asked about retrofit. It is important to clarify a number of aspects of the parameters of the scheme. Foundations are being considered as part of the National Standards Authority of Ireland's review of the IS 465 standard. Any future…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an gceist seo. I will outline the response from the Department, but I say at the outset that the conditions the Deputy describes are unacceptable. I have seen other parts of the country where this has been the case. It is a practice which should not have taken place but did. Such cases need to be resolved as a matter of urgency. The position on resolving wastewater treatment facilities built by developers to service housing estates and estates that have not been taken in charge b…

On the issue the Deputy mentioned in Castlewhite, if there is a connection to a pumping station that is an Irish Water facility, we will look into it with Irish Water. It is important. If the potential is there to resolve the issue, it should be resolved. Perhaps this scheme under our Department might be of assistance. We will look into that. On bonds and the process of taking in charge, local authorities need to work proactively with Irish Water and any other relevant party on the outstanding wastewater infrastruc…