On Wednesday of last week I had three questions down for reply by the Minister for Local Government: the first one asked the Minister if he will make available a grant from the National Development Fund towards the cost of providing a public water supply for the Fanad peninsula, County Donegal; the second one asked if the Minister will make available a grant towards the cost of providing a regional water supply for the Fanad Gaeltacht, County Donegal; and the third asked the Minister what is the present position in regard to the Rossnakill - Tamney water supply scheme. The Parliamentary Secretary, Deputy Davin, deputising for the Minister, made the following reply:—
"With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, it is proposed to take Questions Nos. 45, 46 and 47 together. Proposals for a water supply scheme for Rossnakill and Tamney were submitted by Donegal County Council in 1940 and resubmitted in 1947 but, because of the inadequacy of the source, were not approved. Subsequently a number of other possible sources were investigated and the county engineer's report was considered by the county council last December. A copy of this report was not received in the Department until yesterday, but an inquiry was received from the county council on the 20th January as to the amount of State assistance which would be made available for a regional scheme for North Fanad. Such a scheme would also serve Rossnakill. The maximum rate of subsidy by way of contribution to loan charges in respect of Gaeltacht water supply schemes is 43? per cent., but consideration is at present being given to the representations made by the county council that Gaeltacht water supply schemes should be subsidised at a higher rate, whether from the National Development Fund or otherwise."
I then asked the following supplementary question:—
"Am I to take it that, until the Local Government Department, arising from these questions, got in touch with the local authority in Donegal, no report whatever was received from these people in regard to this matter, although decisions were arrived at last December by the Donegal County Council?"
To that supplementary question, Deputy Davin made the following reply:—
"When the Deputy reads carefully he will see that the Department could do nothing more at the moment."
I then asked further supplementary questions and I should like to say now first of all, without accusing the Minister of anything, that the question of a water supply for the Rossnakill-Tamney area was brought to the notice of the Department somewhere around 1940, but due to difficulties, technical and otherwise, and due to the situation created by the war and, at a later stage, to scarcity of supplies, nothing could be done. In 1947 the scheme was again brought to the notice of the Department but the source at first available had been found during the intervening years to be not quite suitable or adequate for the needs of this particular district.
In addition to that, I should like to say that in 1948 a five-year programme of work was brought into being by the local authority. In Donegal during the war, when most of the work could not be done, the staff were confined to post-war planning. The Rossnakill water supply scheme was within that five-year programme but was very well down the list of priority. The result is that during the past year we have just reached this scheme on the 1948 list. It was proposed in June and July of last year that a full investigation should immediately be carried out and that all available information should be put before the county council at the earliest possible date with a view to going ahead with the scheme as originally intended.
It was found after some considerable time that the trouble that had first made itself felt in 1947—the inadequacy of the supply from the original source—had again to be faced. As a result of further exploration by our water engineer, we found what he described to me last August as the ideal source, not only from the point of view of quantity but also of quality and from the point of view of gravity as far as any part of the parish was concerned.
Immediately I heard of this I felt that here was a peninsula which had no public water supply other than spring wells and pumps, some of which had been erected by the county council. Having asked the engineer to bring before the council at the earliest possible moment his report on this new source and on all other sources available at the county council meeting in December. 1954, I proposed two resolutions which were carried to the effect that, in view of the fact that this new source at a place known as Tullyconnell Lake, and quite a bit removed from the Rossnakill area and in the heart of the Fanad Peninsula, could supply a sufficiency of water not only for the one area but for the whole parish, something more than the mere supply of water to the Rossnakill-Tamney area should be undertaken.
Also, in view of the fact that from our engineer's reports we were able to gather that the cost per house, no matter from what source the supply was taken, was going to be rather high, comparatively speaking, I felt we might, with benefit to the council from the financial viewpoint, make up part of the capital outlay by developing the source in Tullyconnell Lake. On a resolution passed unanimously it was decided to ask the Department which was handling the National Development Fund for a grant from the fund for a supply that would serve the peninsula. It was also decided by the council that as part of the peninsula is in the Fior-Ghaeltacht we should seek from whatever Minister was responsible a grant for a Gaeltacht scheme for part of the parish.
All this would have meant that the Rossnakill-Tamney scheme originally contemplated woud eventually evolve as part of a much greater scheme. In such an eventuality the local authority would not be saddled with the capital development of a very large lake. It was also noted that the cost per house for the water would be much lower. These areas have been on our list and must be given water supplies if we are to keep faith with our people and to show any consistency in our planning.
That proposal, as far as I know, took the form of a letter of inquiry to one of the Departments. That letter was sent on the 19th January last and, as far as I can find out, in spite of the fact that the inquiry was a bona fide inquiry asked by council officials on behalf of the local authority, no reply was received, according to the officials, until the 5th of this month. It is on that point that I must show my disapproval and that I must question the accuracy of the reply I was given by the Parliamentary Secretary.
One would be led to believe, from the original reply to my questions given by Deputy Davin here, that nothing whatever had been done about this business except that in 1940 somebody, from somewhere out of the blue, threw it into the Department and said: "We want a water scheme for this district," and then as suddenly as the proposal was made just as suddenly and completely did it disappear until, in 1947, it re-emerged and was again thrown into the Department only to find that due to technical difficulties it could not be done, and that from 1947 until last week, when I had these questions down, the Donegal County Council or no other council and no other person had, in fact, made any effort whatever to do anything about it.
It was for that reason, that I knew that that was not so and that possibly Deputy Davin was not in a position to know whether it was so or not, not being a member of the Donegal County Council, that I asked some supplementary questions in an endeavour to have the matter cleared up. I asked him if it were a fact that until I had put down the questions and his Department had communicated with the Donegal County Council nothing was done about this scheme since 1940. It was because of that and for no other reason that I put those supplementary questions to Deputy Davin. Apparently, as he said himself, he suspected I wanted to take this on the Adjournment.