Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, and I have listened with interest to the Deputy's remarks.

Primary responsibility among public authorities for the protection and improvement of water quality is statutorily assigned to local authorities acting under the general supervision of the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. Responsibility for the monitoring, management, protection and improvement of water quality is assigned to local authorities under the Local Government (Water Pollution) Acts and related legislation. The EPA has powers to issue advice, recommendations or directions to a local authority regarding the performance by the authority of its functions in respect of environmental protection and a local authority is required to comply with such a direction. Similarly, responsibility for the provision, maintenance and operation of waste water treatment plants is a matter for the local authorities, which in this case is South Tipperary County Council.

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government understands, from inquiries made of South Tipperary County Council, that there was a minor overflow from the Golden waste water treatment plant recently. The council has indicated that the occurrence was of short-term duration and related to an operational matter on which it is following up to help ensure that it will not be repeated. The Deputy may wish to liaise directly with the council with regard to the follow-up steps it is taking.

It is understood that the council is considering the provision of an upgraded waste water treatment plant at Golden under the small schemes measure of the Department's rural water programme. Responsibility for the administration of this programme, within the overall priorities set by the Department and subject to the block grant funding provided, has been devolved to local authorities since 1997. The selection and approval of the individual schemes to be progressed under the programme is therefore a matter for the relevant local authority or again, in this case, South Tipperary County Council. The Department allocated a block grant of €450,000 this year to South Tipperary County Council under the small schemes measure of the rural water programme. Almost €2 million has been provided to the council towards such schemes during the past three years.

Finally, the Waste Water Discharge (Authorisation) Regulations 2007 provide for the operation of an authorisation regime by the EPA for local authority waste water discharges. The regulations require discharges from agglomerations with population equivalents greater than 500 to be licensed. In the case of smaller agglomerations, with a population equivalent of below 500, the regulations provide that a local authority will not be authorised to permit a discharge from a waste water works without certification by the EPA. The agency is currently involved in a programme of licensing and certification in accordance with the regulations. The deadline for completion of the certification part of the programme, which commenced on 22 June 2009, is June 2011. Information on progress with this programme is available from the EPA website at www.epa.ie.

I will conclude by stating that the Minister remains fully committed to the provision of water services infrastructure in south Tipperary. Towards this end, his Department's Water Services Investment Programme 2010-2012, which was launched earlier this year, includes a range of contracts at various stages of planning and construction for south Tipperary. I hope information is of some assistance to the Deputy.

See this speech in context