Richard O'Donoghue: Offers Help to Deliver Houses, Blames Irish water
Richard O'Donoghue addressed the minister about the housing crisis, arguing Irish water are not value for money and offering his direct assistance to deliver houses. He proposed a developer-led infrastructure approach and recommended removing stormwater from sewerage systems to ease pressure on treatment plants.
Main criticisms of Irish water
He told the minister Irish water are not value for money and cited multiple operational failures and cost overruns. He gave examples including Ballangary losing water for three days after an alarm was not acted on, pumps running dry and a thousand houses losing supply. He also described a project that required five tankers a day for two and a half months because connection points were not checked, pushing costs “a couple of hundred thousand” over budget.
Developer-led infrastructure proposal
He urged the minister to consider a developer-laid approach where developers install infrastructure and Irish water takes it over once built on time and on budget. He argued this model would deliver houses faster and provide better value for money, and offered to audit and dismantle projects to prove inefficiencies.
Stormwater separation and sewerage relief
He recommended removing stormwater from the sewerage system as a simple fix to relieve overloaded treatment plants until upgrades are funded. He said new developments can be separated at no extra cost and proposed routing stormwater to waterways via an inverter system. He noted seasonal load differences, saying in winter systems treat “70% of water, 30% sewage” while in dry summers they are “100% dealing with sewage.”
Offer to assist and oversight
He repeatedly offered his service to the minister and other ministers to inspect projects, act as a watchdog and demonstrate where money is being squandered. He said he did not care who received praise once houses were delivered but warned he would criticise if his help was not taken up and insisted on being allowed into meetings to review claims and costs.
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Minister, we have a housing crisis. We need to deliver houses. And I'm offering my service to you as I've offered to the other ministers as well to help you deliver the houses with the experience that I have and with the knowledge I know that Irish water are not value for money. They are not going to deliver the infrastructure for you for you to deliver houses. It's a fact. All the millions that they're quoting you and billions that are quoting you to deliver infrastructure, it is now proven that in all the contracts that I have seen what they've done, they've come in on budget on none of them. I'll just give you a small synopsis of what has happened since the local authorities have stepped away from the water services and Irish water stepped in. Ballangary lost their water for three days all because an alarm went off. Nobody came back to an alarm. Pumps ran dry, we lost the water supply. So because someone didn't go back to an alarm system which has been looked after by the local authority, pumps ran dry, a thousand houses ran out without water. You had now to pay for a new pump and run up the services again. The crew water supply, five tankers a day for two and a half months which cost hundreds of thousands because when they started the project they never checked where they were connecting into so we went a couple of hundred thousand over budget and they had to draw water with trucks to deliver to a population of two and a half thousand. They're not valued for money. So why not look at a developer laid approach. Let the developers put in the infrastructure and let Irish water take it over when we were built on time on budget that will help you. So all the budgets that are coming with you, they're not factual. So I want to help you at any place I can to show them up that they're not valued for money so you can deliver more housing. I don't care if you get the praise for it. Once we get the house done I don't care who gets praise for it. But I want to help. But I don't want to help money being squandered when we could deliver infrastructure. I also want to see Minister for infrastructure for we've been talking about water supplies and I spoke here two weeks ago. If we take the stormwater out of the sewerage system a lot of the plants that are under pressure at the moment will survive until you can get funding to them. Simple fix, remove the water where you can. All new developments can be separated at no extra cost. If we can deliver that now we can actually use the existing systems that are there at the moment and let more houses be built in them by removing the water and let them go into the waterways by running through an inverter system. That's all we've got to do. It's a simple fix. It helps you deliver more houses and until you can get a chance to upgrade a plant. At the moment, during the winter, we're treating 70% of water, 30% sewage. During the summer, when we have a dry summer, we're actually 100% dealing with sewage. And the plants are fine. So again, I'm trying to help you deliver. So I'll throw the ball in, you can pull it. You can deliver the houses and everybody is a win-win situation. You'll get value for money because I've no problem being a watchdog over them and letting you deliver. So this is what I'm asking you to do. Let me help you. Let me show you that you're not getting value for money so you can deliver more houses through your department. That's what I'm asking you to do. And I will help you. Any meeting you're sitting on or any place you're going to, let me in there for a day and let me have a look at what they're telling you. And let me take their projects apart and show you that they're not value for money. Development-led so you can deliver more houses. So I'm here to help. I'll criticise you if I have to criticise you for not taking up. But if you're there and you want help, I'll give you the help that you want. And that's what I'm here offering. Thank you.
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