Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

This important matter is of interest to many people in the Shannon region and beyond. The Minister, who regrets he is not available this evening, explained to the House yesterday in response to a written question that the Department had provided the funding to Dublin City Council for a study to assess the long-term water use and supply needs of the greater Dublin area and to identify potential options for meeting those needs. The Shannon proposal was one of the options that emanated from the study. It is no more than a study option and there is no related infrastructural proposal before the Department for consideration or approval.

This Department is responsible for planning, prioritising and financing all of the major water services projects undertaken nationally. Every effort has been made over the past few years to ensure that water and sewerage facilities have been available to service and support the huge growth and expansion that has taken place across all economic and social sectors. Schemes approved by this Department are incorporated into the water services investment programme, a published document that is always available in the Oireachtas Library. The approved schemes are drawn from regular assessments of needs undertaken by local authorities, at this Department's request, as an input to the overall strategy for providing infrastructure needed to meet environmental protection objectives, development requirements and national and EU public health and water quality standards. It was in that context that the particular study I have referred to was funded. However, there is no scheme in the programme to provide infrastructure to take water from the Shannon to Dublin.

Nevertheless, new long-term supplies of water are required in the greater Dublin area. There is limited potential to abstract additional water from existing sources in the area and it is necessary to consider new long-term options. That was the background to the study which estimated that an extra 300 million litres of water per day will be required from a new major source by 2031. The study concluded that only two options could technically meet this requirement, the Shannon or a desalination plant.

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