Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the points made by the Deputy, which is why it is so important that a detailed submission is made by the council. We all understand the construction price inflation issues that are there but it concerns any additional costs that are different from the proposal that was granted funding at an earlier stage. As Minister of State in the Department of Finance, I am not in a position to commit to funding on behalf of any other Department. More broadly, it is important that funding requirements are set out by local authorities in a detailed way to Departments. This is the way it must work. The Department has a multi-annual programme in place to resolve a number of these issues through a series of funding cycles and funding has already been committed to Kerry County Council, as announced previously. The commitment to resolving the programme is there but the local authority must provide detailed costs to the Department. I know the Deputy knows the report is being developed, which is very important.

In addition to the multi-annual programme, there are a number of more complex demonstration projects that require further examination. Those projects have been considered by an independent expert panel and were found to require further information from local authorities to inform a decision before a funding commitment was made under the multi-annual programme. Local authorities were asked to submit further applications for projects that could have problems resolved by connecting to Uisce Éireann. A number of applications were made. In the coming weeks, the expert panel will made a submission on these applications and the Minister will then be in a position to make an announcement for a further tranche of funding. I hope this is helpful to the Deputy.

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