Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As has been said, the construction of the €500 million sewage treatment plant at Clonshaugh was confirmed by Fingal County Council yesterday. It will serve up to 700,000 people across 26 km from south Louth to the greater Dublin area. The proposal has stirred a high level of opposition and there are a number of real procedural problems with how the Government has dealt with this issue so far. Despite the efforts of the Taoiseach earlier today to evade questions and shirk responsibility, it lies under the remit of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to provide funds for this project, so Deputy Hogan holds the purse strings on this issue and he determines if funding should be made available - it is called political accountability.

The 12,000 residents of the area who have objected to this location have been completely ignored heretofore. The Minister has actually refused to meet the groups of residents and listen to their concerns, despite the fact €18 million of taxpayers' money has already been spent on the project. The refusal to meet is particularly unjustifiable given the scale of the problems with the scheme. It is only to provide a secondary treatment of sewage as opposed to a tertiary treatment model, leaving it well below international standards. I remind the House that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, previously stated he would investigate the matter and would seek to have a cost-benefit analysis of the proposal prepared. He has since, like the Taoiseach earlier today, washed his hands of it. I hope the Minister, Deputy Hogan, will roll up his sleeves and not do likewise. Will he commit to a meeting with the residents groups? Will he commit to undertake a cost-benefit analysis of the scheme before he releases funds for it or will he blindly accept a fait accompli? Will he not exercise the sort of leadership we expect and exercise conciliation and negotiation rather than imposition, which appears to be the mantra of the Taoiseach and the Government in recent times?

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