I thank Independent Ireland for bringing forward this very important motion today. I want to talk about Kenmare first of all. Two housing applications have been held up for the past number of months. They were asked to get a letter from Irish Water to say that it would have water to supply the 170 houses to be built. They cannot get the letter from Irish Water. The time is running out and they will have to pull their applications. This is for 170 houses. No house has been built in Kenmare since 2006 some 20 years ago. Kenmare is surrounded by mountains and lakes. It is surrounded by water. We have more water than any other part of Ireland and just cannot get it into a pump. People are talking about taking water from the River Shannon and bringing it to Dublin. The way we are going in Kenmare anyway, it will take 250 years before the people in Dublin will see one drop of water out of the Shannon unless they drive down and take a bucket of water out of it themselves. Kerry County Council has been trying for many years, unsuccessfully, to get water for Kenmare. We have spent €30 million on a treatment plant. We have a new water plant there and yet we have no water to put into the pipes in Kenmare. I am asking the Minister of State to look at this again. I have asked the Taoiseach about it in this Chamber before. There is just one other thing. There are two housing estates in Aghadoe - Birch Hill and Old Killarney Village - looking down on the lakes of Killarney. They are waiting for their treatment plant to be replaced. It has been taken charge of by the council yet Irish Water and Kerry County Council will not or have not decided what they are doing with the €1 million they have got from the Department. Neither will not perform, or they will not perform together, to provide a new treatment plant for these two estates. This has been going on for six years.

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