Skip to main content
Normal View

CLÁR Programme

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 November 2018

Thursday, 8 November 2018

Questions (3)

Éamon Ó Cuív

Question:

3. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development his plans to reintroduce the group water and sewerage top-up leverage schemes under the CLÁR programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46147/18]

View answer

Oral answers (6 contributions)

My question relates to the reintroduction of the group water scheme top-up. I read a value for money report recently indicating that certain officials seem to think that an average spend of between €10,000 and €12,000 per house on schemes in very isolated rural areas is very expensive. Does the Minister believe that everyone in the country should be given access, with very few exceptions, to water from a group scheme or a public main, where we can be sure of the quality of the water, rather than from wells?

The CLÁR programme provides funding for small-scale infrastructure projects in disadvantaged rural areas that have experienced significant levels of depopulation. As the Deputy is aware, the programme was effectively closed for new applications in 2010 but I relaunched it in 2016 and since then more than 1,200 projects have been approved for funding of more than €25 million.

Since 2016, the CLÁR programme has provided funding to support safety measures for schools and other community facilities. It has funded play areas and multi-use games areas in communities and also provided supports for first responders. This year, for the first time, it has enabled the purchase of vehicles to transport people to cancer care centres and respite services.

My objective is to ensure that the funding available under the CLÁR programme is used to benefit communities in remote rural areas to the best extent possible. I have been able to visit some of the projects which have been funded through the scheme and have seen at first hand the positive impact which even a small amount of support can have on these communities.

I am open to considering expanding the scope of the CLÁR programme to include other measures, subject to budgetary availability. I am aware that in the past the CLÁR programme supported measures such as group water and group sewerage schemes.

I have initiated a review of the CLÁR programme which will examine CLÁR areas by reference to the 2016 census of population data. This review will also help to inform future CLÁR programmes in 2019 and beyond. Decisions regarding specific measures which might be supported under the CLÁR programme in 2019 will be made early next year.

Does the Minister believe that it is the fundamental right of every household to have access to water from either a high quality group water scheme or a public main? Does he agree that those who say a cost to the State of €12,000 per household is excessive should examine the cost of providing basic services to an urban house? In an urban context, one is talking about water, sewerage, street lighting and pavements which would cost well in excess of €12,000 in capital, not to mention the running costs. In most cases, the top-up on the CLÁR scheme was much smaller than that amount but the top-up meant that many rural group water schemes, including many in County Mayo, got going because there was a certainty from the beginning with regard to the amount each household would have to pay.

I agree with Deputy Ó Cuív. As I said, the CLÁR scheme was closed in 2010 and reopened in 2016. The Deputy is correct that it needs to be reviewed. In response to his simple question, I believe that people in rural Ireland have a right to clean water. I agree with the Deputy’s views on CLÁR and I will review both the sewerage and water schemes. The Deputy’s assessment is correct. When members of small communities are collecting local contributions for a group water scheme, the amounts involved are too high for individual households so a top-up must be put in place. I will review the CLÁR scheme in that context and speak to the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment which should increase the funding available for setting up group water schemes.

My first priority on taking office was to get the CLÁR programme back up and running and I am glad I have done that. I have looked at a number of different measures because there is an element of flexibility within the CLÁR programme in terms of supporting rural Ireland. I do not disagree with the Deputy's views on this matter and have been considering a top-up. However, while I want to support small group water and sewerage schemes because the local contribution required is too high, I do not want to see the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment withdrawing money while my Department subsidises such schemes. I want to be able to top up the group water and sewerage schemes in an effective way and will consider the possibility of doing so early in the new year.

When the top-up system was in place previously, the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment did not withdraw money. In fact, the top-up had the opposite effect in that it made it possible for schemes in isolated areas to access funding from that Department because it made collecting the local contribution easier and ensured that proposals for group schemes were viable. Communities were drawing down significant amounts of money from the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. Does the Minister accept that it is unrealistic and wrong for Irish Water and the regulator to say that any extension of sewerage schemes should be done at total economic cost, particularly when urban areas were serviced with no local contribution?

The Minister is a great advocate for rural Ireland. Can he guarantee that the principle of extending the group sewerage schemes to areas near towns, which can be done relatively economically using the public main, will be pursued and that we only develop group sewerage schemes that can be connected into the public system? Will he reintroduce the top-up for group water schemes to achieve the simple aim of having high quality, highly monitored water in every house in this country?

No, I cannot guarantee that. However, I agree with the Deputy that we need a top-up for group water and sewerage schemes. I will see what I can do in my Department, but there are budgetary constraints. I am committed to what the Deputy seeks and, like him, believe people in rural Ireland should have both water and sewerage services, where possible, and receive the same supports from the State as people in cities and towns. I can give one commitment to the Deputy. I am reviewing the issue and sympathetic to group water schemes. I am aware of schemes that were ready to go in 2010 when the CLÁR programme was closed down and they never happened because it was not possible to get the local contribution. It was a good scheme which worked. I will review it and if I can find some funding in my Department, it is one I would like to have up and running as quickly as possible.

Top
Share