Mr. Eamonn Waters:

The Minister announced funding measures under the new multi-annual rural water programme last week. One of the new specific measures relates to what are described as community connections, which allow communities to come together to seek funding under the programme through the Department to develop drinking water and wastewater schemes. There is a funding stream with grants up to a maximum of 85% of cost, amounting to €7,650 per household, to allow those schemes to go ahead. Local authorities have been invited to submit bids under the scheme and that will happen over the next few weeks.

This arose from the review put in place following the Oireachtas joint committee hearings and the report from 2017. The Minister put the review in place to examine how the rural water programme operated. A second part of the review considers the long-term needs for rural water. There is a general acknowledgement that there are deficits in infrastructure but the immediate issue was to address what can be done now through the rural water programme. That is being done. The report on the long-term issue is expected to get to the Minister later this year. In the group there is the National Federation of Group Water Schemes, the Department of Rural and Community Development, the Environmental Protection Agency, the local authorities, the Health Service Executive and so on. It is a broad-based group and measures are being put in place in the short term, with plans for the long term.