Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy is straying far from water and sewerage schemes. The challenge when creating a new scheme under CLÁR is to keep it within a reasonable budget. This year €23 million has been allocated but consideration must be given for future schemes. The challenge is to have a scheme that is confined enough to be affordable and good enough to make a difference. I do not pick schemes by accepting people's ideas as I go along the corridor. The rules are clear, even and open. The situation at Achill is not unique. Off the top of my head I can list Corr na Móna, Carna, Kilternan and many other well-established villages which have no sewerage schemes. The challenge under the CLÁR programme in creating a scheme for wastewater disposal is to ensure a reasonable amount of money would make a difference and a larger problem would not be created of people moving further into the countryside.

CLÁR never promised money for the Michael Davitt Bridge. People must always read the small print. At a meeting in Achill Sound, I said if Mayo County Council prioritised funding of €2 million for the bridge under the Gaeltacht strategic roads programme, I would accept it as an eligible project. I normally do not engage in co-funded projects with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. This year I made the rules handier for the counties in that I told the local directors of the department that if I give an annual allocation to a county, they can look at the totality of requirement for small piers, strategic roads, bóithre áise agus athnuachan baile, village renewal, and that they can take the whole ball of wax and decide where the priorities lie.

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