I thank Senator Finucane for raising the issue. I make this reply on behalf of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche.
Providing modern water services infrastructure to support social and economic objectives has been a major focus of Government spending over the past few years. There has been unprecedented investment by the Department under the national development plan in water and sewerage schemes, and that has made a key contribution to the economic growth that has benefited every part of Ireland.
The Department's Water Services Investment Programme 2005-2007, published in December, includes funding for more than 20 schemes throughout Limerick. Towns and villages such as Athea, Askeaton, Foynes, Glin, Shanagolden, Kilmallock, Dromcollogher, Hospital, Pallasgreen and Bruff can all look forward to new or upgraded sewerage schemes.
Many areas will also benefit from improved water supplies from the major upgrade planned for the Clareville water treatment plant, improvements to the Shannon Estuary water supply scheme and extensions of the Limerick county trunk water mains. In total, almost €158 million has been allocated under the programme for water and sewerage schemes in Limerick. It is clear from all this that a very large number of towns and villages in Limerick are directly benefiting from the drive to bring our water and sewerage infrastructure up to a modern standard.
When selecting individual projects for approval as part of the water services investment programme, the Department takes into account the priorities identified by the local authorities themselves. In this case, an extension of the Shannon Estuary water supply scheme to Loghill, Ballyhahill and Glin was included in fifth place in the list of schemes submitted by Limerick County Council in response to the Department's request in 2003 for all local authorities to produce updated and prioritised assessments of new infrastructural needs in their areas. A water supply scheme for Shanagolden was included as a longer-term priority for the period 2007 to 2012.
The local authorities' assessments of needs are the main input to the approval of individual schemes by the Department. That process has resulted in Limerick County Council currently having a very extensive package of works for which formal departmental approval has been given and for which the necessary Exchequer funding is in place. The €158 million worth of projects to be completed over the next few years will transform the quality and coverage of the county's water and waste water infrastructure and deal comprehensively with the essential infrastructural requirements that the council has identified.
However, as far as the proposals for the areas referred to by the Senator are concerned, the Minister is afraid that, because of overall local and national priorities, along with the high level of competing demand for the available funding, it has not so far been possible to include them in the water services investment programme.
On the positive side, the Minister emphasises that the current water services investment programme, which covers the years 2005 to 2007, is part of an ongoing three-year strategy that has been rolled forward at regular intervals since the beginning of the current national development plan in 2000. New schemes will continue to be added to future phases of the programme in line with the prevailing priorities identified by the local authorities.
In that context, the Minister envisages that local authorities will be afforded a further opportunity in 2006 to undertake completely new assessments of their needs and to review their overall priorities again. The new needs assessments will be taken into account by the Department in future phases of the water services investment programme. The Minister can assure the Senator that what he has said will also be borne in mind when the next batch of new schemes is considered for approval.
