Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise the issue of Government's failure to address the severe infrastructural projects in west County Limerick. The failure to fund new sewerage schemes is starving our towns and villages of the resources they need to expand their populations and create new jobs. West County Limerick has experienced a serious drain from the land and the farming community there has decreased considerably in recent decades. The number of people whose income is derived solely from farming has also suffered a significant drop.

Planning restrictions have deprived people of the opportunity to build houses in rural areas. To be eligible for planning permission in 80% of rural areas of County Limerick, applicants must be from the area and cannot already own houses. The general response of the local authority to one-off rural housing is to refuse rather than grant permission. The planners will say that towns and villages should be developed rather than allowing a pattern of one-off housing but, because of the lack of proper sewerage facilities, housing and business developments cannot be facilitated. Towns and villages in Limerick West which are starved of development owing to the failure to provide adequate sewerage include Askeaton, Shanagolden, Foynes, Athea, Pallaskenry, Dromcollogher, Adare, Patrickswell, Bruff and Kilmallock.

The 50-year-old sewerage system in Kilmallock is seriously hampering any development and is resulting in environmental and developmental concerns in the village. There is concern that damage is being done to the Loobagh and Maigue rivers as a result of the lack of adequate facilities for sewage disposal in Kilmallock. The proposals before the Department to develop the town's sewerage scheme will provide for a population equivalent of 4,000 with a possibility for future development. The former Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Cullen, promised a new sewerage scheme in 2004 and we are no nearer to having this developed.

Shanagolden is in an area of great population decline where the exit from farming or the transfer to part-time farming has been very pronounced. An injection of economic activity into the area is needed. The construction of a new sewerage scheme would ensure this. Several attractive proposals from developers to regenerate this village have been discussed with Limerick County Council but such development cannot take place until there is a new sewerage scheme.

I was informed by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government that the Limerick county trunk water mains scheme servicing Patrickswell and Adare has been approved for construction in his Department's water services investment programme 2004-2006. Submissions have been made to Limerick County Council on a sewerage scheme which would substantially increase the population of Patrickswell. This population boost cannot take place until the new sewerage scheme is in place.

On 26 January 2005, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, informed me in this House that the Patrickswell-Adare sewerage scheme would commence construction in 2005. It did not. On 9 March 2004, the former Minister in the Department, Deputy Cullen, informed me that the Adare sewerage scheme was approved for construction under his Department's water services investment programme 2003-2005. This Minister also failed to honour his commitment. In 2003, the Minister, Deputy Cullen, also informed me that Adare sewerage scheme would commence construction in 2003 and that the revised preliminary report was approved in July 2002, but we are still waiting.

A Bruff development plan is being completed and a town development plan is being drawn up. Key to the development of Bruff is an understanding of when the sewerage scheme will be introduced and developed. Serious flooding takes place in Dromcollogher, which is among the many problems that require a new sewerage development. Athea, which is in the western part of the area and nearest to the Kerry border, is an excellent community in a rural area with great potential for development and has always responded to developing its community but is hampered because of this.

Limerick County Council has made comprehensive submissions to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government on this but the Department always returns with another question, issue, clarification, reduction or query on consultancy fees. Limerick County Council has been trying to progress this but every time it answers a question fully, it receives another query, development or a new approach on consultancy. The neglect of west Limerick must be addressed. The Minister should give us a chance to develop. The population is declining in most areas and the introduction of sewerage schemes is key.

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