andMr. Keaveney asked the Minister for Local Government the present position with regard to the proposed water scheme for Lettermacaward, County Donegal.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Water and Sewerage Schemes.
4.
No proposals for this scheme have been submitted to my Department to date.
Is the Minister satisfied that there are no proposals before him now and that there have not been in the past nine years?
A preliminary report on the scheme will be placed before Donegal County Council on 14th March, 1977, and, therefore, it will not come before me for quite some time. I understand the scheme has been ranked No. 14 in the local authority priority list of water and sewerage schemes, so I would not hold out a lot of hope for it even after it has been submitted to the Department unless the county council move it up in the priority list.
This scheme has been advanced considerably as a group scheme. More than £65 per person has been collected and the general belief in the area has been that it is the Department of Local Government who have held it up.
I am glad to be able to set the record straight.
Just to get the record straight, is the Minister aware or will he try to find out whether there is any basis for the suggestion, which appears to have come from the local authority, that it rests with the Department, and if it does not will the Minister try to get the council to get a move on to do something about the money that has been collected—£65 per house in respect of 200 houses? This is all apart from the great need for water there.
I am a great believer in dealing with such matters in a democratic way. I have given the Deputy the fact that there are no schemes before the Department and that this will not come for a preliminary debate by the county council until 14th March next. In view of the fact that it will be coming before the county council, who are apparently now taking an interest in it, the councillors are the people who should put the necessary pressure on to have it moved in the direction of the Custom House. I could not possibly intervene at this stage.
Surely the Minister must be concerned about a scheme which has been nine years on the list and in respect of which 200 householders have contributed £65 each? Surely this is not something the Minister can laugh his way through and refer to the democratic process.
If Deputy Blaney is as powerful as I think he is in Donegal, why has he allowed this to go on for nine years? It has not gone outside the county. Neither I nor my officials are responsible—this must be settled in Donegal before it comes to the Department. When it does we will have a look at it.
Does the Minister think that this whole idea of local autonomy is any answer for the 200 people who are awaiting a water supply to which they have already contributed £65 each in the name of a Department of Local Government group scheme? If it has been hanging around as long as it has been, is not the Minister to be blamed?
I have been here for four years. Somebody must be blamed for the five years before that.
It is not a question of blaming Ministers. If the Minister would get off this thing about democratic procedures and do something about it there might be a decision. That is what the Minister for Local Government is there for.
If Deputy Blaney would think about getting something done instead of trying to get a few headlines, which may appear more important to him than getting water to those people, we might get somewhere.
I started the scheme and the Minister has made a damn poor job of it.
What we need are a few good public representatives in Donegal.
5.
andMr. Keaveney asked the Minister for Local Government if he is aware of the urgent need for a new sewerage scheme in Dunfanaghy/Port-na-blagh, County Donegal; and if he will indicate when this scheme is likely to commence.
The council's proposals for the acceptance of a tender for this scheme were submitted to my Department last year but, in view of the low priority which the council have accorded to the scheme, I cannot at this stage indicate when approval can be given or when the scheme is likely to commence.
Will the Minister take a look at this and ascertain whether the low priority rating is a justifiable situation in a tourist resort area such as this? The situation has to be experienced to be believed. It is a scandalous situation and I should like the Minister to have a personal look at it by way of inspecting his inspectors' reports.
The position is that either there is a priority list or there is not. It is No. 10 on the list in Donegal. The Donegal County Council would be the first to complain if we jumped that scheme over those that are higher on the list and they would be perfectly entitled to do so. I agree with the Deputy that this appears to be a scheme which merits quite high priority but I cannot change the regulations which are made at local level in this case. Perhaps the discussion we have had now may have some effect.
I am glad the Minister recognises that this is a very bad case. While having regard to the priority list drawn up by the county council, is the Minister aware that if more money were provided we could get this scheme much faster? I do not want to interfere with the democratic process the Minister mentioned.
The Deputy seems to forget that the party of which he was once a Minister spent slightly more than £8 million on water and sewerage facilities just before they left office. Last year I spent £25 million on these services and this year I will spend more than that. That is a little extra input.
The Minister takes much pleasure in quoting all these large sums of money but he has not mentioned that inflation has devalued much of it. Will he please understand that this does not remedy the drastic situation that exists in this tourist area and it does not bring water to other areas? He does not seem to have regard to the fact that the schemes he spoke about were put on a ten-year basis some 16 years ago but we are still not half-way through them.
It is more shame on my predecessors if schemes prepared 16 years ago are not completed yet. Obviously they were not doing their job.