These new regulations, announced by Housing Minister James Browne, will allow builders to develop small-scale wastewater treatment facilities in collaboration with Uisce Éireann.
These facilities will be available for housing projects of up to 40 homes in areas without existing sewer infrastructure.
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The initiative was brought to Cabinet earlier in the week following calls for a return to the use of package treatments plants from Crowe at the Fianna Fáil’s think-in earlier this year.
Speaking on the announcement he stated: "This is a very significant and welcome step forward for housing developments and will cut through existing obstacles faced by developers."
“At the Fianna Fáil party think-in earlier this year, I proposed that the Department of Housing and Local Authorities should once again allow developers to build package treatment plants in order to provide sewer connections to new housing developments. I have repeatedly pushed for these to come back into use and have raised it directly with the Taoiseach and with the Minister for Housing in recent months.”
The new measures will introduce regulatory changes that will allow low-volume wastewater systems, serving up to 40 homes, to be authorised through a registration system.
This approach enables housing development in areas currently lacking wastewater infrastructure while ensuring environmental safeguards are maintained.
Crowe explained how in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, package treatment plans were a common feature in “nearly all” housing developments.
These plants would allow sewerage from individual households to be pumped through a pipe networks to a series of tanks where it would be treated and cleansed “to a high standard.”
He expressed that: “These plants were quick, cheap and relatively easy to deliver and meant that housing construction could be accelerated as a result.”
Crowe detailed how these facilities “became a thing of the past” due to the “reluctance of Irish Water to get involved” as “no one wanted to take on the infrastructure.”
He claimed these treatment plans were a “key enabler to housing development”, explaining that: “The infrastructure involved has improved significantly in the last twenty years and if something is built to proper specification and maintained it can rapidly allow housing developments to happen in places that heretofore couldn’t be considered and at a speed that hasn’t been seen since the Celtic Tiger years.”
“Even though these new measures could be a game changer for housing development, Government should not deviate from plans to provide mains schemes in villages and towns that are currently lacking these facilities, such as Broadford and Cooraclare, and others, or in towns and villages where existing facilities are at maximum capacity." he added.
Housing Minister James Browne has announced new measures aimed at easing housing delivery, particularly in rural areas. Speaking as he announced the initiative, he said:
“I want home delivery unshackled from unnecessary delays in our rural areas. I have been laser-focused on what can be done to unlock homes being delivered particularly in our smaller towns and villages across the country, and this is an essential intervention at this stage."
"My Department has examined this issue carefully with Uisce Éireann, the EPA, and the construction sector. If developers can produce a high quality, EPA-approved wastewater system, working with Uisce Éireann and under their guidance, then we should get out of their way so they can do that.”
Minister Browne emphasized that the new approach would allow housing development in areas currently lacking wastewater infrastructure, while ensuring that environmental safeguards are maintained.
“There will be no change or challenge to the quality of the wastewater treatment,” he added. “We are just cutting through unnecessary hoops for activation. I am leaving no stone unturned in my ambition to accelerate the delivery of more homes across all areas of the country – including in our more rural areas.”
