Vol. 543 No. 2
562 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if the targets identified in the national development plan regarding water and sewerage schemes are likely to be achieved within the timeframe of the plan; if, on the basis of the performance to date, he expects to achieve these targets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26976/01]
The national development plan provides for a threefold increase in capital spending on water and sewerage services in the seven years up to 2006 by comparison to the period covered by the previous NDP. Total planned investment amounts to almost £3 billion–3.8 billion–at 1999 prices, of which over £2.4 billion–3 billion–is for major public schemes. The focus of the expenditure is on providing water and waste water services to support economic and social development, employment generation, maintenance of high growth rates and the achievement of high environmental standards, including compliance with EU drinking water and urban wastewater treatment directives.
The first phase of a rolling three year water services investment programme under the NDP, covering the period 2000-02, has been announced, a copy of which is available in the Oireachtas Library. The programme contains details of 529 schemes which are various stages of planning or construction. The programme will be advanced progressively up to the end of the NDP.
Significant progress is being made in the implementation of the programme. Major schemes which have already been completed since the beginning of 2000 include a water and sewerage scheme in Leixlip, sewerage schemes in Navan, Osberstown, Drogheda and Dundalk, the Dublin water conservation scheme and the Ballyjamesduff regional water scheme. Among the significant schemes under construction are the Dublin Bay project, which includes, at Ringsend, the largest wastewater treatment plant being constructed in the EU at present, sewerage schemes in Galway, Cork, Limerick, Wexford, Swords and Letterkenny and water supply schemes in Lough Mask, Tuam and Newmarket-on-Fergus.
