No housing for ‘red listed' Wexford villages as state body accused of ‘putting roadblocks in place' for developers
'It is my view that every State agency should be contributing towards tackling the housing crisis,' said the Fianna Fáil TD. 'They should not be putting roadblocks in place and it should be their top priority to ask themselves every morning: 'What are we doing to assist in the delivery of housing within the State?'.'
Estimating that for every 50,000 homes built in the State, a €1.7 billion investment to deliver water and wastewater infrastructure is required, Deputy Byrne said money should no longer be the issue when it comes to tackling the biggest housing crisis of modern times.
"We know the money is there. We talk about the sovereign wealth funds, about the Apple money and about how we are going to invest in our infrastructure, but we need to ensure Uisce Éireann actually delivers. Unfortunately, the experience from a lot of this is that the pace of delivery is just not good enough. The question that Uisce Éireann is not asking every time its leadership gets up in the morning is: 'What are we doing to contribute to ensure that people can live in homes in our communities?'.'
With a 'creaking infrastructure' causing 22 water outages in Gorey last year, Deputy Byrne said these issues could be traced directly back to a lack of long-term investment in north Wexford.
'Gorey is growing very quickly. In the period between the censuses of 2016 and 2022, the population of the local electoral area grew by 14 per cent. That is obviously putting a lot of pressure on connections and so on. Part of the problem, and why all the building is happening in Gorey, is that most of the villages in the surrounding area do not have the capacity.'
Highlight a scheme which has been a 'priority for Wexford County Council for well over two decades', Deputy Byrne said delivering the Ferns-Camolin scheme would both improve water quality throughout the area and allow developers to build houses outside of Gorey.
'Without this scheme, it is practically impossible for those two villages to grow. This puts increased pressure on the town of Gorey. We are being told it is a priority. If we are to see that it is a priority, we have to actually see building work being delivered. I specifically ask the Minister of State to go back with this. I have raised it on a number of occasions, including on the floor of the Dáil and the Seanad and directly with Uisce Éireann. I ask that the Aughrim scheme in Co Wicklow and the Ferns-Camolin scheme in Co Wexford would be prioritised.'
Currently, those living Gorey and its surrounding areas must live with water facilities which fall well below the acceptable standard said Deputy Byrne.
'Last year we had 22 water outages in Gorey at different stages, which impacted different parts of the town. In many cases these outages took place without notice. In quite a number of cases they were for longer than 24 hours. You can imagine the disruption for individuals trying to get to work when they are unable to shower in the morning, or to wash during the course of the day. These outages impacted parts of the town and rural areas like Tara Hill and Ballymoney.
'It is just not acceptable to have that number of outages. The message has to be in terms of investment.'
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