asked the Minister for the Environment the present position regarding the proposed new sewage outfall and treatment works at Mutton Island, Galway Bay.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Galway Bay Sewage Works.
2.
I understand that members of Galway Corporation at their meeting of 23 September 1985 passed a resolution to the effect among other matters that approval be sought to the revised preliminary report for this scheme subject to the provision of full-scale conventional treatment. In order for my Department to consider this revision to the preliminary report it will be necessary for the corporation to submit details of the form of treatment now envisaged. A report on the proposed causeway and its possible effect on the waters of the harbour, together with a detailed estimate of the cost of the proposals, will also have to be provided.
The Minister will be familiar with the widespread anxiety existing in that area at the Department's proposal to put untreated sewage into Galway Bay and that such proposals make a joke of EC directives and our own standards in that matter of water pollution control. Can the Minister ensure that the fullest care and co-operation will be utilised in consideration of the revised plan to ensure that untreated sewage will not be put into Galway Bay?
The Deputy will be aware that Galway Corporation are now a full local authority in their own right, have borough status and extensive access to professional skill and assistance, in which case it is their primary responsibility to come forward with a detailed design proposal. I must stress that, other than the resolution requesting secondary treatment for the first time, no formal or detailed proposal — other than the resolution passed by the elected members — has been presented since 23 September to the Department of the Environment. If and when such a proposal is presented by the local authority I am sure the Department of Environment officials will give it full consideration.