Cathal Crowe
Question:12. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for an update on the planned pilot scheme for unsewered villages. [33135/23]
View answerThursday, 6 July 2023
Questions (12)
Oral answers (6 contributions)
My question relates to the plans to have a pilot scheme to provide sewerage in currently unsewered villages. I am looking for an update on the implementation of that.
I know that Deputy Crowe has been pushing this very hard and has been very supportive, as many others have, of this scheme. It is new. I announced €50 million for it in 2022. Effectively, we asked local authorities to apply to me in respect of schemes that would not have been brought forward under the Uisce Éireann capital programme.
In April 2022 I announced a new funding measure, as an advance stage of the upcoming multi-annual programme for the wastewater collection and treatment needs of villages and settlements. We have allocated funding of €50 million. The first round of funding is intended to follow a demonstration project model approach to inform future funding needs. This is therefore a pilot. I intend to make announcements very shortly in that regard.
An independent expert panel has evaluated each application received. Fundamentally, the panel has made that report to me. I have assessed it. I will make further suggestions to the panel report because I believe we have an opportunity. It should not be down to a pure value-for-money basis; it should be on the basis of what I mentioned to Deputy O'Sullivan. First is the upgrading of existing infrastructure or the installation of infrastructure that is not there and looking at the future growth potential. I visited Broadford with the Deputy and other Oireachtas colleagues. I listened to residents there. Broadford has the potential to grow and for people to live in the village and its confines if we are able to provide wastewater infrastructure. We did have a couple of applications in from Clare County Council, which engaged very well with this scheme. I expect to make announcements on this very shortly.
When we went into government we were asked to feed in ideas as to what kinds of projects we would like to see in the programme for Government. The provision of sewerage in villages like Broadford, which the Minister mentioned, Cooraclare and other rural village which are unsewered was one of the suggestions I made, and I am delighted the Minister has led the way on this. There is a lot of money ring-fenced for this: €50 million. It is a pilot scheme. I expect that it will be very successful when it gets under way and that it will become a multi-annual scheme. Environmentally, I do not think we have any choice but to provide infrastructure for these villages. Housing for All always nearly gets dominated with discussions about social housing and affordable housing, but the reality is that villages like Broadford, Cooraclare and others in Clare and throughout Ireland can play a major role in housing provision if they have a network. Broadford has been fighting for this for many decades. When I was a councillor in 2004 they acquired land. It is shovel-ready. Cooraclare is shovel-ready. There are two incredible teams in the locality leading this on. There is full backing politically from the council and from the Oireachtas representatives. The Department has the money. We would love to hear a positive announcement. We would love to know when that announcement might happen for Broadford and Cooraclare.
A number of schemes came in right across the country. If we can get this scheme right, and I believe we can, this will evolve into a multi-annual programme. This is in addition to what we are investing already. The Deputy is 100% correct that our villages and towns across the country can play a major role in housing provision. That is why we have moved forward with the vacancy grants, for argument's sake, the Croí Cónaithe grants that Deputy Canney, Deputy Aindrias Moynihan, Deputy Crowe and others have mentioned. That has been really successful. If people have an opportunity to live in their villages and towns, they will. It is not a question of a lurch towards the cities. It should never be that. The provision of wastewater treatment services is really important. I have some final work to do on the submission. I have received recommendations, not all of which I am 100% happy with, to be frank, so there will be some changes to the recommendations that are there because this should not be done on just a value-for-money basis. If this is looked at simply in terms of euro and number of households, it may not look like there is a financial reason, but from the perspective of the environment, public health and future growth potential, that needs to feed into it. I cannot give the Deputy a date but it will be imminent.
The Minister's tones are definitely positive, and that is to be welcomed, but what we are talking about here is intrinsic to so many other debates that happen in this House. The provision of sewerage provides for the ability of a village to grow and to have housing for people to come back to rural areas, for the local school to survive and for the local shop, the local pub and the post office network to be viable. This is intrinsic to so much. Then there are all the environmental reasons why Broadford, Cooraclare and many other villages should be included.
How many villages does the Minister know off-hand are within the panel report that has come before him? One concern we have in County Clare, which we have been pushing this for years and years, is that we have two excellent projects, both shovel-ready, Broadford and Cooraclare. If projects are good enough, shovel-ready enough, does the Minister intend that there could even be two approved in single county, or does he plan on getting this all around the country? He can announce it today-----
The Deputy is looking for a pre-announcement, which we cannot do. All I will say is that if schemes are good, there is no restriction per county, like one or two per county. That is not the question. We received just over 20 applications across the country - not a lot, to be frank, but enough for us to be able, in my view, to start this pilot programme. Where the land is purchased, the planning permission is there and the works are ready to go, those are the types of things that provide additionality above and beyond the work that has been done by Uisce Éireann on larger schemes and right across the country.
There is no limit per local authority area on the number of schemes that could come forward. We have had over 20 and they have been assessed in detail. The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, Uisce Éireann and my Department have gone through them. Some of the applications were not fully complete and we had to go back for additional information. I will make announcements on them as soon as I can. I have only just concluded the work on the recommendations.