Batt O'Keeffe (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. I have also had representations on this issue from the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Killeen, Senator Dooley and Senator Daly, and have also met a deputation from the area. The Carrigaholt, Labasheeda and Cooraclare sewerage scheme is included in my Department's water services investment programme to start construction in 2007. It is just one of more than 20 water and sewerage schemes serving almost 40 different areas, with a combined value of €196 million, that are in the programme for County Clare.

Following examination of Clare County Council's original preliminary report for the scheme, my Department wrote to the council in November 2004 outlining a number of issues that needed to be reviewed. Of particular concern was the high average cost of serving each house to be connected to the scheme. The cost per house in Labasheeda would have exceeded €83,000, with equivalent costs in Cooraclare and Carrigaholt of €53,000 and €74,000, respectively. No reasonable person would countenance these extraordinarily high costs being borne by the taxpayer.

In this context, it is worth noting that a householder can provide a proprietary single house waste water treatment system at only a fraction of these figures, and this is the yardstick by which the installation of sewerage facilities from the public purse must be assessed. In disbursing Exchequer funding, my Department must be conscious of value for money principles and cannot approve a scheme where the costs simply cannot be justified by comparison with other potential solutions.

Clare County Council responded with a revised preliminary report and water services pricing policy report. These were examined in my Department but they only succeeded in reducing the average cost per house to €44,046 in Labasheeda, €31,535 in Cooraclare and €27,647 in Carrigaholt. Again, these costs exceeded by multiples what a householder would pay for a proprietary single house treatment system. These figures dictate that a more focused, realistic and cost-effective solution will have to be devised by Clare County Council to come up with a scheme that can be provided at an acceptable cost to the public purse. The Department is anxious for an early solution to be found but has had to advise the council that the schemes, as proposed, are not economically sustainable. The council was advised last December to look at a pilot scheme the Department is funding in north Tipperary to test new methods of dealing with wastewater from smaller agglomerations which might offer the prospect of a more economical solution in Clare. The hope is that this new system, which, instead of laying traditional gravity or pumped sewers, collects and treats effluent from existing septic tanks using small bore pipes, will offer a more cost effective way of providing sewerage services for more dispersed communities.

The construction phase of the pilot scheme will be completed later this year and the results will then be analysed to see if the system can be successfully replicated in other parts of the country at an acceptable cost. However, this was just one suggestion and the Department will be willing to look at other proposals Clare County Council might come up with that would provide a more economic outcome than has emerged so far for Carrigaholt, Cooraclare and Labasheeda.

The Department has received no formal proposals from Clare County Council regarding de-bundling of the schemes. However, proposals that may be received in this regard will be considered. I am as anxious as the Deputy is to see a suitable solution being found for these areas but we all appreciate the importance of achieving value for money solutions for Exchequer moneys sourced from the taxpayer.

I have listened carefully to the points the Deputy has made this evening and I assure him that there will be no avoidable delay in the Department in dealing with this case when suitable proposals are received from Clare County Council. Once the council puts forward plans that meet reasonable affordability criteria, they will quickly be approved by the Department and the council will then be able to prepare contract documents with a view to inviting tenders. The Department is fully committed to putting wastewater services in place for these communities and I am confident that a way forward can be found in the near future.

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