Since 2000, under my Department's water services investment programme, the provision of waste water treatment systems has been completed in the major coastal towns of Drogheda, Dundalk, Midleton, Westport, Wexford and Courtown and Riverchapel. The Ringsend waste water treatment plant, officially opened by the Taoiseach in June, provides for the waste water treatment requirements of all of Dublin city and south Dublin, significant areas of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and Fingal, and parts of County Meath. By the end of 2003, Cork, Limerick, Galway and many other smaller urban areas will also have state-of-the-art waste water treatment facilities in place and operational.
Other major coastal schemes under construction, or due to start this year, include the Carrigaline, Cobh, Dungarvan, Sligo, Tramore and Waterford main drainage schemes. Schemes for Bray, Bundoran, New Ross and Shanganagh are approved for funding to commence in 2004, together with the Arklow main drainage scheme, subject to the outcome of current legal proceedings relating to the proposed location of the treatment plant in the latter case. The latest phase of my Department's water services investment programme, covering the period 2003 to 2005, includes all the schemes required to give effect to the commitment in the programme for Government that all centres with a population of over 1,000 will have secondary waste water treatment in place, or at an advanced stage of planning, by 2005.