Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 July 2017
1329. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his plans to increase the funding available in 2017 for group sewerage schemes; and his further plans to approve the Marlinstown group sewerage scheme in Mullingar, County Westmeath. [34738/17]
View answerMy Department's new Multi-annual Rural Water Programme 2016-2018 provides for the funding of demonstration group sewerage schemes, through Measure 4(d), where clustering of households on individual septic tanks is not a viable option, particularly from an environmental perspective.
Local authorities were invited in January 2016 to submit bids under the programme. The invitation envisaged no more than two demonstration group sewerage schemes being brought forward under the measure in any one year of the three year programme. The demonstrations will allow, over the course of the programme, my Department to determine the appropriate enduring funding levels and relationship with the current grant scheme. In total, 83 bids were received from 17 local authorities requesting funding under this measure including a proposed Group Sewerage Scheme for Marlinstown which was included by Westmeath County Council in its bids.
An Expert Panel was convened by my Department to examine the 2016 bids from local authorities for projects under a number of the programme's measures, including measure 4(d) and to make recommendations to the Department on funding. The Panel recommended a priority list of demonstration schemes under this measure to my Department which accepted the recommendations in full when approving the rural water allocations for 2016. The priority list recommended by the Panel did not include the proposed Marlinstown scheme.
As only two demonstration projects can be advanced in any given year and a priority list of new demonstration group sewerage schemes has already been identified for the duration of the programme, there is currently no scope for any additional schemes. A copy of the Expert Panel's report and consideration of all proposals under the programme is available on my Department's website at the following link: http://www.housing.gov.ie.water/water-services/rural-water-programme/group-water-schemes-and-rural-issues.
