Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me the opportunity to raise this matter.

The delay in completion of a number of sewerage schemes in County Clare, among them the Scarriff, Feakle, Quilty-Mullagh, Labasheeda, Cooraclare and Carrigaholt schemes, is part of a trend in rural Ireland where development grinds to a halt, homebuilders are put in a limbo and everything remains at a planning stage because of the failure by the Government to instil a sense of urgency in such projects. I ask the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, to give a firm date on when such projects will go out to contract. These schemes are but the tip of the iceberg of the need for proper 21st century wastewater treatment schemes to be installed in the towns and villages of County Clare.

According to Clare County Council, the €13.4 million Labasheeda, Cooraclare and Carrigaholt schemes are due to start next year, along with a number of other schemes in Ennistymon, Liscannor, Miltown Malbay, Spanish Point,O'Callaghan's Mills, Bodyke, O'Brien's Bridge, Flagmount, Cratloe and the Shannon town scheme. If this is the case then 2006 will be an auspicious year for wastewater treatment in County Clare.

I doubt if this will happen. I ask the Minister of State to give me some commitment on which schemes will commence in County Clare in 2006. Currently ten County Clare towns and villages, including the county town of Ennis, are behind schedule on various sewerage projects. The Scarriff, Feakle, Quilty and Mullagh schemes, costing approximately €12 million, were due to start last year. According to the same timetable, the Doolin, Ballyvaughan and Corofin sewerage schemes were due to start this year at a cost of €17 million, along with other schemes throughout the county.

I understand that with regard to the Scariff, Feakle, Quilty and Mullagh sewerage schemes, the preliminary report had been approved by the Department and consultants were to be appointed to prepare contract documents to allow the schemes proceed to construction. Have the contract documents been prepared and if so, when will construction commence on the Scarriff, Feakle and Quilty scheme?

The preliminary report for the Doolin, Ballyvaughan and Corofin sewerage scheme has been approved by the Department and consultants were to be appointed to prepare contract documents to facilitate their construction. Have the contract documents been prepared and when will the contract go to tender?

There is welcome news that the Lisdoonvarna and Ballyvaughan scheme is ready to go to tender. The Minister of State must be well aware of the net result of this chaotic situation which exists in large sections of County Clare. This stifles development, creates disproportionate investment in our already congested towns and makes a mockery of the national spatial strategy. The Minister of State may regard the expenditure on some of the smaller schemes such as those to which I have referred as representing a poor return on infrastructural investment. The Minister of State, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, implied as much on a recent visit to the county when he compared the cost per unit of wastewater facilities in villages and in large towns and cities. This is an unfair and invalid comparison.

We either have a national policy on housing and rural development which includes a spatial strategy or we do not. I can assure the Minister of State that investment in our towns and communities will pay dividends in the long run. I am aware of the problems people encounter when trying to build houses in these areas. The county council will not give permission for these houses because the proper sewerage schemes are not in place. It is a hindrance to planning, for instance, in Labasheeda. This beautiful village on the estuary could be another Doolin if it had a proper sewerage scheme and the same can be said of Feakle, where a health problem exists.

We are told there is money available. I urge the Minister of State to fast track these schemes in 2006. There is a pollution problem in the Shannon estuary and there is a risk to the freshwater lakes and streams which will affect the blue flag status of many of the county's beaches. This sends the wrong message to tourists at a time when the west in general is struggling to attract tourists.

In the flurry of paperwork between the county council and the Department, there seems to be an unyielding attitude at Government level that takes a great deal of time to eventually wear down. Statistics show that 283 private houses in County Clare had no piped water supply and 461 do not have the benefit of sewerage facilities. The policy relating to these projects must be overhauled as they are essential for balanced regional development.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The Scarriff, Feakle and Quilty sewerage scheme, which includes Mullagh and the Carrigaholt, Labasheeda and Cooraclare scheme are being procured as two separate group projects. They are approved for construction in my Department's Water Services Investment Programme 2004-2006 and are part of a package of more than 20 water and sewerage schemes, serving almost 40 different areas in the programme for County Clare with a combined value of nearly €194 million. Clare County Council's contracts documents for the Feakle, Scariff, Quilty scheme are with my Department for examination. The council has also submitted an updated preliminary report for the Carrigaholt, Labasheeda and Cooraclare scheme to the Department.

To allow the contract documents for the Scarriff, Feakle and Quilty scheme to be fully examined, my Department asked the council in February 2005 to submit a revised water services pricing policy report. The importance of this report was pointed out to the council since it plays a critical role in determining the overall economics of all water services schemes being funded by the Exchequer.

The water services pricing policy report sets out the proportion of the cost of a scheme that has to be funded by contributions from the non-domestic sector in accordance with "the polluter pays" policy. Broadly speaking, that policy provides for the capital costs associated with the provision of services to meet the requirements of the existing domestic population being funded by my Department, with an allowance for organic growth. The additional marginal capital cost of servicing non-domestic consumers, and providing for future development, is recovered by the local authority from all non-domestic consumers in its functional area through a combination of water charges on commercial consumers and planning levies on future development.

A preliminary assessment by my Department at that time indicated the likelihood of excessively high costs of servicing individual dwellings in the three locations. The cost per house in Feakle would have been €33,134; in Scarriff, €18,587; and Quilty, €56,410. On that basis it seemed unlikely that the scheme would be economically sustainable, unless a significant proportion of costs were appropriately attributable to the non-domestic sector with a resulting significant reduction in the cost of the domestic share of the scheme. In this context it is worth noting that a householder can provide a proprietary single house treatment system at only a fraction of these figures and this is the yardstick by which the installation of sewerage facilities from the public purse has to be assessed. In disbursing Exchequer funding, my Department has to be conscious of value for money principles. It cannot approve a scheme where the costs simply cannot be justified by comparison with other potential solutions.

Clare County Council responded to the Department in June when a revised water services pricing policy report and economic assessment were received. These have been examined in the Department but the revised unit cost per existing house to the Exchequer, after deducting the amounts estimated by the council to be due from the non-domestic sector, is €19,725 in Feakle; in Scarriff €12,307; and in Quilty €27,549. In the case of the Carrigaholt, Labasheeda and Cooraclare scheme, following examination of the preliminary report, the Department wrote to the council in November 2004 outlining a number of issues that needed to be reviewed. Of particular concern again was the high average cost of serving each house to be connected to the scheme. The cost per house in Labasheeda would have exceeded €83,000 with equivalent costs in Cooraclare and Carragaholt of €53,000 and €74,000, respectively.

Clare County Council responded with a revised preliminary report and water services pricing policy, polluter pays, report in May. In view of the figures emerging from the proposals put forward to my Department, a new more innovative approach will have to be adopted by the council to come up with schemes that can be provided at more acceptable costs to the public purse. Both my Department and I are anxious for an economical solution to be found. Against that background the Department wrote to the council about both schemes last week. The Department pointed out that the schemes, as currently designed, were not economically sustainable but emphasised that it was keen for the council to come up with alternative, financially viable proposals.