Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 6 Dec 2001

Vol. 546 No. 1

Adjournment Debate. - Water and Sewerage Schemes.

Mr. Aylward

I thank the Minister of State for coming in to take this Adjournment matter. I am disappointed the Ceann Comhairle is not in the Chair because he is the only one who would remember when the first approach was made to the Department of the Environment and Local Government for funding for the scheme.

I will outline briefly the history of the scheme. As far back as 1965 the consulting engineers prepared a preliminary report for a regional water supply to serve Goresbridge, Paulstown and Kellymount. It sat for a number of years. During that period I became a Member and made representations to many different Ministers for the Environment and Local Government. On 11 February 1982 an updated report was submitted to the Department of the Environment and Local Government. It sat again until 28 October 1986 when contract documents were submitted to the Department for approval at an estimated cost of £1,394,000. The scheme was again put on the back burner. On 26 March 1997 the Department of the Environment and Local Government approved funding to carry out source protection of the scheme which was requested on 28 May 1993. This letter also requested Kilkenny County Council to submit updated contract documents for the main scheme which had been submitted on 28 October 1986. In February 2001 the latest revision of contract documents was submitted to the Department of the Environment and Local Government. Those facts speak for themselves. For whatever reason, this scheme has been left on the back burner for so long that I despair of it ever getting approval. This large rural area encompasses a small number of villages and towns and the people there have experienced serious water supply shortages over a long number of years. By any yardstick, I am sure the Minister of State would agree they are very patient to have waited so long for a scheme that was originally mooted in 1965. As a good deal of money was available over a period of years, it is difficult to understand that schemes such as this were not approved and funded by the Department of the Environment and Local Government.

We encourage people to move to live in rural Ireland. It is a case of Dublin versus the rest. In a county such as Kilkenny, we encourage people to move to the towns and particularly to the capital, Kilkenny city, and there it is a case of Kilkenny versus the rest. Kilkenny is bursting at the seams. The cost of houses has gone sky high and building land is not available. There is plenty of good building land available for people who want to live in a rural area, but the planning process prevents them from doing so as there is no funding available to provide the necessary infrastructure. That relates to several schemes, not just this one. I raised on several occasions in the House the lack of infrastructure such as sewerage facilities and I raised on the Adjournment the need to increase grants for group sewerage schemes, but I seem to be making very little progress.

There is not much more I can say because the scheme's history speaks for itself. It is time officials in the Department realised there are places called Gowran, Paulstown, Goresbridge and Kellymount and made arrangements to provide the necessary funding to Kilkenny County Council to allow this scheme to proceed after 37 years. That is a reasonable request and one to which I ask the Minister of State to respond.

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment and Local Government (Mr. D. Wallace)

I thank Deputy Aylward for raising this matter. The provision of modern environmental infrastructure to support economic objectives has been a major focus of Government investment over the past four and a half years. Total planned spending on water services infrastructure over the period of the current national development plan amounts to almost 4.4 billion. This investment is aimed at supporting economic and social development, employment generation and the achievement of high environmental standards. The additional water production capacity created during last year alone equalled the average daily requirements of a population equivalent to 309,000 persons. This represented, in one year, 36% of the corresponding figure for the entire 1994 to 1999 period.

The Water Services Investment Programme 2000-2002 is the first phase of a rolling pro gramme to give effect to planned NDP spending on water services up to 2006. Total investment proposed for County Kilkenny under the first phase of the programme amounts to just over £31.7 million, 40 million, in respect of ten schemes. Over half of this, almost £19 million, 24 million, is in respect of schemes that will deal with water supplies, in particular to Kilkenny city and south County Kilkenny.

I should clarify the name of the scheme under discussion. I understand that the townland of Kellymount, referred to by the Deputy, incorporates part of Paulstown. No proposals have been submitted by Kilkenny County Council to my Department for a scheme for Kellymount. Any submissions from the council in this regard refer to Gowran-Goresbridge-Paulstown.

Contract documents for a scheme at Gowran-Goresbridge-Paulstown were submitted to my Department by the council in the mid-1980s but have not been approved. The Deputy will be aware that the current water services investment programme, announced in July 2000, for Kilkenny took into account the list of water and sewerage schemes adopted as priorities by the council at that time. Local authorities were asked to undertake a fresh assessment of the needs for capital works in their areas and to prioritise their proposals on the basis of the assessments.

Kilkenny County Council submitted an assessment of needs in April 1999; this did not address the need for a scheme for Gowran-Goresbridge-Paulstown. Following a strategic review of water supplies in the county, the council submitted a further assessment of the needs in February 2000. This latest assessment placed a proposal for water conservation, storage reservoir and safety measures for Gowran-Goresbridge-Paulstown at number three on the priority list of 11 schemes for the years 2000 to 2006. This proposal was estimated to cost £552,000, 700,000. The council's priority list of six schemes for the longer term period 2007 to 2020 also includes, as priority number three, work to Gowran-Goresbridge-Paulstown, consisting of mains replacement and extra storage, estimated at £368,000, 467,000.

The works covered by the contract documents produced in the 1980s, which were updated and resubmitted to my Department in February this year, incorporate the work encompassed by proposals identified in the council's needs assessment, along with other works. The published investment programme for County Kilkenny contains two water supply schemes to advance through planning, the Kilkenny city regional water supply scheme estimated to cost £6.5 million, 8.25 million, and the south Kilkenny water supply scheme, to serve Belview port and estimated to cost £11 million, 14 million. Taking into account the level of competing demand, the need to prioritise individual proposals on a national basis and having regard to statutory and health requirements and developmental needs, these schemes were regarded as the most essen tial in terms of Kilkenny water supply needs when the programme was drawn up.

The current programme is only the first phase of an investment plan in water services that will be progressively rolled forward up to the end of the NDP in 2006. The proposal for the Gowran-Goresbridge-Paulstown water supply scheme will be considered in the context of the next phase of the programme, in light of the council's identified priorities at the time. The Deputy can also be assured that the points which he has made here this evening will also be taken into account at that stage.

Acting Chairman (Mr. O'Malley)

There will be no watering of the track at Gowran Park.