John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

Water services investments have been undertaken for a number of years on the basis of three year rolling capital programmes of schemes. The schemes included respond to environmental and social-economic developmental needs and priorities identified by local authorities having regard to overall criteria set at national level and overall national resources. The length of time it takes from first proposal of any water or sewerage scheme to completion of construction largely depends on the nature and complexity of the scheme and the statutory processes involved.

When a water or sewerage scheme is first proposed by a local authority in its assessment of needs it may take some time to be approved for inclusion in my Department's water services investment programme, depending critically on the priority afforded to it by the elected members of the local authority and the funding available for the programme. In the case of a scheme included in the water services investment programme, my Department's involvement at individual stages can vary from two to four occasions depending on the value of the scheme. The Department approves the local authority's design brief and preliminary report for all schemes and in some instances it also approves the contract documents. In the case of public private partnership contracts, it additionally approves the local authority's tender recommendation.

The Department's objective is to deal with preliminary reports within six months of receipt, contract documents within four months and tender recommendations within two months. Design briefs are generally cleared within a few weeks. Local authorities have responsibility for all other aspects of a scheme, including appointment of consultants, statutory planning and other processes including public consultation and approval of elected members, site investigations, acquisition of lands and wayleaves, preparation of tender documents, tendering process, appointment of contractors and carrying out of works. The time taken to advance a scheme will depend largely on how quickly these processes are completed. The Department keeps the approval procedures for water services schemes under ongoing review and is committed to devolving as much responsibility as possible to local authorities, consistent with the requirements of the Department of Finance's capital appraisal guidelines and my Department's obligations relating to management and oversight of Exchequer expenditure.

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