Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 November 2016
13. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the number of housing developments in County Donegal with stand-alone treatment plants which are waiting to be taken over; when he expects these developments will be taken over; the reason for the delay; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35223/16]
View answer95. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the progress he has made to date in relation to the taking in charge of developments with stand-alone treatment plants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35222/16]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 13 and 95 together.
As the Deputy will be aware from previous PQ replies, the National Taking in Charge Initiative (NTICI) for residential estates, with pilot scheme funding of €10m, was launched in April 2016 to accelerate the taking-in-charge process of housing estates by developing new working methods. Further information on the NTICI can be found on my Department’s website at a link that will be circulated with the Official Report.
[http://www.housing.gov.ie/search/archived/current?query=Taking%20in%20Charge].
Baseline surveys carried out to inform the development of the NTICI in December 2015 indicated that, of the 5,566 housing developments yet to be taken in charge, there were approximately 914 estates with developer-provided infrastructure (DPI).
Under the terms of the NTICI, only those developments subject to valid taking-in-charge applications were eligible for inclusion in the call for proposals for pilot funding under Circular FPS3. It is important to recall that NTICI is not intended to establish a rolling annual funding programme to take in charge all estates not yet taken in charge but was instead intended to develop better knowledge and systems to support the taking in charge of further estates over time.
Nationally, 353 developments were approved for funding under the NTICI and of these, 44 contain stand-alone treatment plants or developer-provided infrastructure, which is the focus of the Deputy’s questions.
Seven local authorities were allocated funding of some €2.7m under Measure 2 of the NTICI in relation to DPI type infrastructure. To date, six of those local authorities have drawn funding totalling almost €900,000. Works are in progress and further updates are due from the relevant local authorities later this month.
With regard to the position in Donegal, the December 2015 survey that preceded the NTICI indicated a total of 281 developments with stand-alone wastewater treatment plants and, of these, 154 developments are subject to on-hand applications to be taken in charge. In respect of these, Donegal County Council was allocated approximately €634,000 in NTICI funding to progress 8 housing estates with stand-alone wastewater treatment plants to bring them to taking-in-charge standard. I understand that these works are progressing and some €313,000 has been drawn down to date.
I intend that the experience and learning from the operation of the NTICI over the course of 2016 will be used to point the way forward in relation to supporting the taking in charge process in future.
