Mr. Douglas Kelly:

There is no problem either way.

More than €243 million of funding, over the period 2021 to 2025, has been provided under the national development plan for non-Uisce Éireann investment in the rural water sector, which includes €175 million of funding through the rural water programme. The multi-annual rural water programme is the primary funding stream providing capital funding to address the challenges faced by the rural water sector in maintaining, renewing and developing systems and networks. The core purpose of the programme is to provide the sector with the necessary funding for projects that will improve the quality, quantity and reliability of water services and address infrastructure deficits that are having an impact on the provision of safe and secure water services to rural dwellers. The Department also provides investment support to individual households through grants for drinking water, including private wells, and wastewater, for septic tanks.

The first cycle of the multi-annual programme was introduced in 2016 to replace a previous block funding grant arrangement. In 2019, the Department invited applications from local authorities to fund projects under a further cycle of the programme. The Department received in excess of 900 applications. Of these, approximately 700 individual projects were approved for funding by the Minister, including some where emergency work and additional funding was required. Many of these projects have now been fully completed, while work continues and is at different stages on other more complex projects. Exchequer funding of more than €61.5 million was provided in 2023 under the rural water programme to fund projects and households to deliver improvements to the quality, reliability and efficiency of water services in rural areas.

The Minister launched a new multi-annual programme for the years 2024 to 2026 on 17 January this year. Local authorities were invited to submit applications under a range of funding measures before the closing date on 12 April this year. The Department has received applications for funding for priority projects and is currently completing a process of validating and, where necessary, clarifying issues with the local authorities. When completed, the Department will refer all valid applications to an independent expert panel. The panel is established and tasked with critically evaluating each request for funding received under the programme and will make recommendations on individual projects for the consideration of the Minister.

Working in partnership with the key stakeholders in the sector, including the local authorities, Uisce Éireann, local communities and group water schemes, the Department is using Exchequer funding in a cost-effective manner to improve the water services available to rural Ireland. Local authorities play a particularly vital and very effective role in supporting the delivery of the programme and are responsible for the administration and oversight of the delivery of individual projects in their areas.

Mayo County Council submitted an application under the programme in 2019 for a community water connection in Cleragh, Kiltimagh. The submission was to enable 21 houses in the area that are reliant on private wells to connect to the Uisce Éireann network. The specifics of the application for the community water connection were assessed by the independent expert panel and a recommendation was made. Having considered the panel’s recommendation, the Minister approved funding of €90,865 for the project in October 2019. To date, the Department has paid €51,352 to Mayo County Council for works on this project, including the planning, design and tendering stages. In the case of all projects approved for funding under the multiannual programme, if a local authority finds itself in the position of requiring additional funding for a specific project, an application can be made to the Department at any stage during the project. In such cases, the Department will fully consider the application and will provide a decision and additional funding, if appropriate, without delay and as soon as possible. To date, the Department has not received a request from Mayo County Council for additional funding for the proposed project.

I thank the committee again for the invitation to meet and I am happy to take any questions at the end.