I propose to take Questions Nos. 858 and 859 together.
The Castlepollard reservoir was twenty-seventh and the Castlepollard Sewerage Treatment Plant was nineteenth on the list of water and sewerage schemes submitted by Westmeath County Council in response to my Department's request to all local authorities in 2003 to undertake assessments of needs for capital works in their areas and to prioritise their proposals on the basis of the assessments. The priority lists were taken into account in the framing of subsequent phases of the Water Services Investment Programme. Given the rating afforded to these schemes by the Council, it was not possible to include them in the current Programme.
Local authorities have, however, recently been asked to carry out new assessments of needs and to review their water and waste water infrastructural priorities in light of economic, demographic and other developments that have taken place since the previous assessments were completed. New priorities emerging from this process will inform future phases of the Water Services Investment Programme.