Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. I thank Deputy Connaughton for raising this issue.

The Water Services Investment Programme 2007-09, which the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government published in September 2007, includes more than 50 major water and sewerage schemes, with a value of over €464 million, for County Galway. The programme includes a further eight schemes with a value of over €114 million for Galway city.

The Minister is pleased to confirm that the Mountbellew sewerage scheme, at an estimated cost of €5.958 million, is one of the schemes included in the programme. It is being bundled with sewerage schemes for Carna, Eyrecourt and Kilkieran for procurement purposes and is scheduled for a 2008 start in the investment programme. Funding has been allocated for the combined package and it will be able to go to construction once the planning and procurement processes have been completed.

The present position is that Galway County Council's preliminary report — which sets out details of the scope and likely cost of the scheme, and of the council's proposals for advancing it — is under examination in the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The Department's examination is close to being completed and the Minister is confident that a response will issue to Galway County Council within the next few weeks.

Approval of the preliminary report will allow the council to draw up the contract documents, which will be used to invite tenders for the scheme. This will be a major step forward towards the construction phase. The scheme is an important one for the local community, as the Deputy and I well know. It will ensure that the town has a sewerage scheme capable of meeting current demands, that there will be capacity to service new development and that environmental standards, including water quality in local rivers, will be preserved and improved for the benefit of the town and its residents.

The Minister is conscious of the fact that this scheme is urgently needed to service new development. He has already indicated that Galway County Council can expect an early response to its preliminary report and he will ensure that there is no avoidable delay by the Department in this regard.

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