Rural Wexford dying out due to lack of water services – ‘Uisce Éireann is the planner now’
Wexford PeopleUisce Éireann’s unwillingness to develop new infrastructure in rural Co Wexford is effectively preventing the local council from building houses outside the main towns.
With the county’s villages and hamlets being “emptied into new estates” in urban centres, councillors are now willing to use any means necessary to revitalise Wexford’s dying heartlands.
At the September meeting of Wexford County Council (WCC) the last few remaining options for housing in rural areas were debated by councillors.
“We have little or no powers any more, Uisce Éireann (UE) is the planner now,” said Cllr Jim Codd, referencing the lack of services in rural areas. “There’s large swathes of land in rural Wexford which aren’t being catered for, estates are being built in the towns and rural Wexford is being emptied into those houses.
“The minister (for housing) is preparing population targets and, once they’re published, there’s a great opportunity for UE to right the wrongs of the past regarding its investment into rural areas.”
Accepting Cllr Codd’s concerns, director of services Carolyne Godkin said any prospective housing developments relied on “proper supply and wastewater investment from UE” adding that WCC is “working hard to address the balance between urban and rural developments”.
Chief executive of WCC, Eddie Taaffe, said he and the council’s other officials were in something of a Catch 22 situation when it came to stating its case to Uisce Éireann.
“We would like to allocate housing developments according to population growth in larger villages and smaller towns where there may not be existing wastewater capacity, places where we’d like to see houses being built and people would be very keen to live,” he said. “We’re stuck in a dilemma where we’re told there’s no demand for wastewater capacity and we’re saying we would create demand if the capacity was there.
“So, we need to crack this nut and look at the level of infrastructure we want to provide. If you look at Ferns, Camolin, Ballycanew, Adamstown, they’re all places that people would like to live but they can’t because there’s no certainty around wastewater. We’re not looking for all these problems to be solved overnight, but we are looking for some certainty, some indication there will be a scheme, there will capacity – once we have that information we can work around it and allow those areas to develop.”
While lack of wastewater infrastructure appears to be the stumbling block in the majority of areas, one part of the county is now experiencing issues with freshwater supplies.
"We have 65 houses awaiting development in Bunclody,” said Cllr Barbara Anne Murphy. “And UE is now telling people they can’t build in Bunclody because although we have sufficient wastewater treatment services there’s insufficient freshwater supply.”
Meanwhile, Cllr Marty Murphy suggested bypassing UE entirely and even offered to look after excess wastewater himself.
“We can’t wait for UE, we need local engineering solutions,” he said. “I deal with waste every day on my farm, waste is waste, it can be collected, it can be transported. There are other solutions than simply waiting for UE, it can be done if the will is there.”
With the councillors growing increasingly querulous, Mr Taaffe reminded them that, ultimately, UE did not report to WCC and was only beholden to those in central government.
However, director of services Eamonn Hore said the lines of communication were open and those at the helm of the water authority were fully aware of Wexford’s needs.
“We do liaise with UE, it is aware of our priorities,” he said. “The latest estimate for a scheme from Ramsgrange to Arthurstown is €8m, we don’t have that kind of money, it has to come through UE.”