Adjournment Debate. - Mutton Island (Galway) Sewage Treatment Plant. – Dáil Éireann (27th Dáil) – Wednesday, 23 Oct 1996

Adjournment Debate. - Mutton Island (Galway) Sewage Treatment Plant.

Mr. Molloy

I am pleased the Minister has come into the House to reply to my question. Is he aware the proposal before Galway Corporation to consider the option of a sewage treatment plant based on alternative technology, that would allow the facilities to be built underground on Mutton Island, has been estimated by P.H. McCarthy & Partners, consulting engineers, to have a true stage one scheme cost of £25,459,500 at current prices, a 28 per cent increase on the approved scheme's capital cost? Is he aware that plant operation costs of the underground proposal are estimated by McCarthy's to have a true stage one annual operating cost of £770,300 at current prices, an increase of 150 per cent on the approved scheme's annual operating costs? In view of this does he still consider the underground proposal to be a viable option for Galway Corporation?

The Dáil Official Reports show I have raised the need for a proper sewage treatment plant and a new sea outfall for the Galway main drainage system with successive Ministers for the Environment since 1982. Even though the need was recognised that long ago, in 1996 we are no nearer a decision on the matter than we were in the early eighties. The scheme was then estimated to cost approximately £5 million and its capitalised costs since have increased by a factor of seven.

Earlier this year the Minister for the Environment, Deputy Howlin, announced he would not provide funds for the construction of a causeway to Mutton Island to facilitate the construction of the treatment plant and sea outfall on the island, as previously approved by him, and that Galway Corporation should consider seeking tenders for the design, construction and operation of an underground plant located on Mutton Island. This decision was a reversal of the Minister's earlier announcement and naturally caused great confusion in Galway, particularly as he gave no indication of the likely capital and operating cost differences or from where the moneys would come.

What was the basis for the Minister's decision? Did he have a separate examination carried out by experts that led to his change of mind? If so, who are the experts and is their report on the technical and financial aspects of the underground scheme on Mutton Island without a causeway available? Will he submit a copy of it to Galway Corporation? Has the Minister confirmation that the European Commission will approve funding for an underground plant on Mutton Island and, if not, will he indicate if he proposes to provide funding from the Exchequer towards the capital costs and an annual subsidy towards the running costs?

At the time the Minister made his announcement, did he know the Segher's proposal for an underground waste water treatment plant at Mutton Island on a capitalised costs basis would cost £35 million compared to £23.7 million for the scheme he approved and announced earlier this year? Is he telling Galway Corporation that he will approve an underground scheme for the island costing £11.3 million more than the scheme he approved earlier this year? Furthermore, will he indicate if he intends to make an annual subsidy available to Galway Corporation to meet the huge annual operating costs of the Mutton Island underground scheme, calculated by McCarthy consulting engineers to cost £770,000 per annum? Does the Minister know this level of annual cost would require an increase of £77 per annum per household in Galway Corporation's service charges, an increase of more than 100 per cent on current domestic service charge levels or, alternatively, an increase of up to £13 in the pound in the commercial rates?

In making his second announcement, contradicting his first, the Minister landed Galway in a major dilemma. Did he know the financial consequences of putting the plant underground on the island? Is he prepared to provide the initial capital and annual funding to enable that to be done? I appeal to the Minister to shed realistic light on this matter in the hope that the continued widespread pollution of Galway Bay can be addressed and the quality of our bathing waters restored to blue flag status at the earliest possible opportunity.

Minister for the Environment (Mr. Howlin)

I welcome the opportunity to explain to the House my position in regard to the provision of a new waste water treatment facility in Galway.

I am convinced of the urgent need for a modern facility to treat waste water from Galway city and its environs and, furthermore, I am committed to finding an environmentally sound solution in the shortest possible time. There are few matters that could be more important to the continued prosperity and development of Galway than a proper sewerage system. That is the view of every sector I have spoken to in Galway. The rapid development of the city in the past 20 years cannot continue in a sustainable way without such facilities and the present highly unsatisfactory situation is adversely affecting tourism, the local environment and the priceless amenity of Galway Bay. We must also remember that the EU Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive requires that appropriate secondary treatment be in place in Galway by the year 2000.

For these reasons I had become increasingly worried about the difficulties which have beset Galway Corporation's existing proposals for a treatment plant which would involve a permanent causeway to Mutton Island based on a conventional design. These difficulties have, as the Deputy knows, culminated in a legal challenge to the proposals, with all the uncertainty and delays that entails.

In these circumstances, I felt there was a responsibility on everybody involved to examine the possibility of other solutions which would address the difficulties associated with the proposals and deliver a modern facility in the shortest possible time. These difficulties centre around the causeway and the visual impact of a conventional plant on Mutton Island. An alternative approach, based on different technology, would offer an opportunity of meeting these concerns and it was in this context that I wrote to the Mayor of Galway on 3 October suggesting that Galway Corporation should consider such an approach.

My view that, for environmental and practical reasons, Mutton Island remains the best overall location for the treatment works is known and my letter to the mayor repeated it. When explaining my commitment to the Mutton Island location in the House on 9 May, I indicated that I would continue to consider ways in which the visual impact of the project could be minimised. The suggestion I have put to the corporation is consistent with that position.

I am aware that the alternative technology now available has permitted plants to be located underground in other cities where particular circumstances point to such a solution. There appears to be no reason such a project would not be technically feasible on the Mutton Island site. Furthermore, the use of different technology in the handling of sludge, which can substantially reduce the weight and volume to be moved, could obviate the need for a permanent causeway. The fact that projects incorporating these technologies have been developed and installed elsewhere would suggest that whatever additional costs may be entailed were not found to be prohibitive when weighed against the environmental benefits involved.

I am aware the corporation's engineering consultants and the city engineer have both prepared reports on a proposal submitted by a Belgian company, but this is only one of a number of possible designs, based on alternative technologies, that might have relevance in the case of Galway. Furthermore, that proposal, and the costings, can be considered at this point as only preliminary. Not until consultants are appointed, and submissions made by prospective contractors will it be known, with certainty, what the capital and operating costs of a modern underground plant would be.

As regards operating costs, it is a known fact that the current major programme of water and sewerage infrastructure investment will give rise to additional operating costs for local authorities generally, not just in Galway, and these were among the factors taken into account in the context of the review of local authority finance which I commissioned from consultants KPMG.

I feel there are very good grounds for examining alternative technological solutions in the case of Galway. If there is agreement in principle to the approach that I have proposed, my Department will co-operate in every way in the preparation of the necessary documentation and the speeding up of the revised proposals.

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht - Wednesday, 23 Oct 1996