Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

I agree with the Minister in respect of the relationship between physical planning and the supply of essential services such as water and waste water. I will use my constituency as an example because I am familiar with it. A major debate took place before the 2002 county development plan was adopted. It was an uneasy debate and resulted in a broad strategy with the intervention of a previous Minister into the process. A strategy on how development should take place was drawn up. Each sub-county plan fitted into the strategy. These were predicated on sufficient water and waste water services but it was not in the gift of the local authority to provide this. It was for central funding to fund the major element of such services. Spills occurred in the River Liffey as a result of not upgrading the waste water treatment plant at Sallins. These were identified by residents in the area. Some remediation work has taken place as the first part of the upgrade.

I remember asking the council engineer about the contents of the river and he responded that there was "some enrichment". I had to press him to understand this. It did not sound that I would want this in the water. I discovered that it referred to raw sewage. I certainly did not think this was desirable if it was upstream of the water treatment plant.

Responsibility to connect physical planning with the ability to provide water and waste water may lie with the local authority. However, the Minister has responsibility to provide funding to allow this to happen. This is where the scheme has fallen down in Kildare. It is a fault at national level rather than at local level that there is insufficient funding to carry out the upgrade of the wastewater treatment plant at Osberstown and Leixlip in a timely way. The local authority approached the Department in 2002 and although the Leixlip upgrade has been sanctioned it will be two or three years until the Osberstown plant is up and running. That timeline has caused a serious problem.

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