Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Aylward will never steal my thunder. Unlike some others, we tried to use our mandate responsibly in the context of negotiating the confidence and supply arrangement. A large part of trying to negotiate that was unpicking the mistakes made by the establishment of Irish Water with the charges and the infrastructure itself, to which Deputy O'Dowd alluded. I remind people that while charges were in place, it cost the Exchequer approximately €30 million net a year. With all the difficulties that arose related to the charging infrastructure, we were investing €300 million less per annum in water infrastructure in that time. I agree with the single utility model structure with regard to focusing on where the investment needs to go. During that confidence and supply agreement, we insisted as a party that there would be fairness between both rural and urban dwellers for water charges with a particular focus on group water schemes. The agreement has secured a series of funding increases to group water schemes and established a working group to review funding.

Not enough is being done and we wait to see the outcome of that review but Deputy O'Dowd is correct that each local authority area needs to submit its needs. There is a responsibility in the liaison between the local authorities and Irish Water. Fianna Fáil is committed to ensuring equity of treatment between rural and urban dwellers in accessing water services. In light of that, we fully support this motion. We have boosted funding to the group water scheme under the confidence and supply arrangement. We pushed for that and will press on with the working group as a priority to ensure equity between urban and rural dwellers and water supply costs.

New subsidy arrangements have been put in place, endorsed by a special delegate conference of the National Federation of Group Water Schemes on 13 December 2017, which came into effect on 1 January 2018. It is estimated that the revised subsidy levels would cost approximately €23.5 million per annum compared with the average annual cost of €19.5 million for comparable years. Capital funding for the rural water programme is now set to increase by €5 million to €25 million per annum in 2019. This enhanced level of investment will be maintained up to 2021 and we will insist on that. Including funding being provided this year, a total of €95 million has been secured for the period, 2018-21. One point jumps out from the page in the motion tabled by the Rural Independent Group, relating to the grants provided in 2011 of more than €70 million. It dropped to just under €21 million by 2016. It shows that much work is needed in that regard. I welcome the review that is under way and think that money can be saved elsewhere as well.

I inform my colleagues who do not know about it of a plan under the greater Dublin drainage scheme to spend more than €1 billion on the creation of a massive sewage treatment plan that many of my colleagues and I believe is not required on the east coast. We believe that waste should mainly be treated in the areas in which it is generated. Surely localised plants are a better way forward. We need to look at our wastewater plan in general and, nationwide, we need to look at the big projects that many engineers seem to favour, including projects with large capital expenditure. While the Minister is present, I ask that he follow through on a commitment given by Deputy Howlin as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform that a full review would be carried out with a cost-benefit analysis of a greater Dublin sewage scheme with one large sewage treatment plan in the Cloghran and Clonshaugh area of north Dublin.

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