A lack of investment in Irish Water is delaying the construction of new housing, schools and more a Galway TD has said.
Sean Canney that a lack of water and wastewater infrastructure is making it impossible to build on the land that is ready for development.
“There are significant areas of zoned lands where any application for planning is deemed premature as there are inadequate water/wastewater services available,” Canney said.”
“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.”
He added that getting a connection to water services is delaying the development of construction projects, and is also highly cost prohibitive.
Canney singled out the IDA Park in Athenry as a location which is not serviced by Irish Water, which leads to businesses not investing, and job creation being “stifled”.
On top of industry needs, housing is also badly affected he said, with new construction impeded by a 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.”
He said that investment is too often focused on areas of already high population, to the neglect of the regions.
“This is compounded by the lack of sufficient funding to allow Irish Water do the work they have been set up to do”
Major infrastructure projects in Galway which are currently underway, or at the planning stage, include the €2.4 million upgrade of Tuam WWTP, and the construction of new plants in Spiddal and Ahascragh, where work is due to begin this year.
