Rural towns and villages are set to suffer the lasting consequences of cuts to Irish Water budgets, according to independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice.<\/p>\n

He noted that the budget cuts will have a significant impact on rural areas where upgrade works were to be carried out or where new sewerage systems were to be put in place.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the matter, Fitzmaurice said: \u201cIt is hugely disappointing to see that Irish Water\u2019s budget has been cut for investment in either water or sewerage systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are countless projects around the country which require attention; but without adequate funding, these projects will continue to be kicked down the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government talks about climate action and water quality, as well as cleaner lakes and turloughs \u2013 while at the same time Irish Water is ordered to cut costs by a straight \u20ac100 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will push a lot of schemes back for a number of years and will leave a lot of small towns without critical infrastructure which will hamper their growth in the immediate future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you take a closer look at what is going on at the moment, you will notice that some larger towns are being prioritised as a result of pressure being imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).<\/p>\n

\u201cIn past Government announcements, there was great fanfare around the level of investment that was going to be put aside for water and sewerage infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut cuts to the Irish Water budget are likely as a result of the massive budget overruns witnessed in the National Children\u2019s Hospital, the impacts of which we will probably be feeling for some time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is disgraceful to think that many important schemes will be delayed, given that options to purchase in relation to land were already carried out last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsidering the level of discussion around climate change and water quality in this country, this is proof that we are talking out of both sides of our mouth.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to put the investment in to make Ireland a better place. But there doesn\u2019t seem to a commitment there among the acting Government to help small, rural towns and villages to prosper and increase the number of houses in the area \u2013 where there is already a willingness among people to build.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only places which seem to be getting prioritisation is the larger cities, particularly when the EPA is applying pressure,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

Michael Fitzmaurice – 0861914565<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rural towns and villages are set to suffer the lasting consequences of cuts to Irish Water budgets, according to independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice. He noted that the budget cuts will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[38],"class_list":{"0":"post-3272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-press-releases","7":"tag-irish-water"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelfitzmaurice.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelfitzmaurice.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelfitzmaurice.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelfitzmaurice.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelfitzmaurice.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/michaelfitzmaurice.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3273,"href":"https:\/\/michaelfitzmaurice.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272\/revisions\/3273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelfitzmaurice.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelfitzmaurice.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelfitzmaurice.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}