Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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I am very concerned that residents of Pallaskenry, County Limerick, are being dragged into the High Court next week by Limerick County Council in order to compel them to stop a campaign to retain the clean water they have used for 50 years from Bleach Lough in their area. Residents benefitting from this water know from experience that it is a pure and unpolluted source that provides good quality water to their homes. The residents are threatened with jail in the coming weeks unless they acquiesce to a diktat from Limerick County Council to give up their campaign.

In contrast, the neighbouring areas, including Kilcornan parish, have suffered for decades from a supply of water of dreadful quality and urgently need and want a new water supply which Limerick County Council is harnessing from the River Deel. Unfortunately, the county council is also intent on bulldozing its way into the catchment area served by Bleach Lough and forcing the Deel water on the local community, as it intends to mix the two water supplies. Local people do not want this. While it would be a big improvement for the Kilcornan area the people in Pallaskenry are happier with the more local water supply they know and trust, which they believe would need less chemical input and is not as exposed to pollution sources as the alternative sources being developed by the council.

It is regrettable in the extreme that Limerick County Council has engineered a situation where it might seem that the Bleach Lough retention campaign is denying those in the adjoining areas who urgently need a new supply. This is not the case. It is the county council, which by its inflexible diktat has held up the situation for far too long. It is possible for Limerick County Council to allow the people of Pallaskenry to retain the Bleach Lough water while expediting the extension of the River Deel scheme to those who need it.

Local democracy and subsidiarity are terms often heard from Government and its Departments and agencies. If applied in practice, in this case it would mean respecting the residents of Pallaskenry who want to hold on to the Bleach Lough water supply while, as a matter of urgency, providing a new supply for those communities which have scandalously been left with water of inferior quality for far too long.

Will the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and his Department refrain from rubber-stamping what Limerick County Council is attempting to do and listen to the community served by Bleach Lough? While the Department should support and expedite the extension of much cleaner water to the other communities which have been denied it for decades, it should allow the community in the Bleach Lough catchment area to maintain its source and the water it enjoys, wants and has confidence in. These objectives are not mutually exclusive and it is possible to implement both of them. Rather than merely giving me a script provided by the Department, will the Minister of State genuinely examine this situation in a flexible manner, intervene and ensure the Department consults the communities involved and the county council so that the genuine democratic wishes and well-being of these communities can be served?

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I will inform him of the facts of this case. He is aware of how important the availability of a good quality water supply is for the development of all areas, including those of Pallaskenry and Kildimo. I am glad to say that my Department continues to promote investment in modern water services infrastructure to support social and economic development. Last December, we published the water services investment programme 2005-07 containing almost 900 water and sewerage schemes at different stages of development and planning.

The programme includes funding for more than 20 schemes with a value of nearly €158 million in Limerick, including the Pallaskenry-Kildimo water supply scheme, which is approved for construction. This scheme is estimated to cost approximately €1.4 million and involves an extension of the Shannon estuary water supply scheme to serve the Pallaskenry-Kildimo area. An advance section of it has already been completed in conjunction with roadworks on the N69. Approval was given to Limerick County Council's contract documents and the invitation of tenders for the remainder of the scheme in November 2004 and the works involved started last month.

As the Deputy is aware, the current water supply source for the bulk of the area to be served by the new scheme is Bleach Lough. There have been some local objections to the replacement of the Bleach Lough source by the Shannon estuary scheme extension which will instead use water from the River Deel. In this regard, I must point out to the Deputy that while my Department provides funding for a large number of public water supply schemes, actual responsibility for the planning and provision of such schemes rests with local authorities. However, as the Department was aware that there were objections in this case and to ensure that any objections were properly taken into account, the Department sought clarification from Limerick County Council.

Following a public consultation process, the council reported back to the Department in November 2002:

[A total of] 8.6% of the people who attended the public consultation and completed the questionnaires were against changing their water supply source, 34.6% had general or no comments and almost 57% required the new water supply source. In total, over 91% of people either had no comment or were in favour of being provided with a new water source because of difficulties experienced with the reliability of water quality, pressure, etc., of their existing supply.

Apart from the outcome of the consultation process, there were a range of other factors supporting the extension of the Shannon estuary scheme. These include the pressing need for additional water capacity to facilitate development in the area, the capacity limitations on the Bleach Lough supply which would affect its ability to meet future water demands fully, its vulnerability to pollution and the position of a number of group water schemes that were suffering from serious water quality problems and needed a new source. It was therefore decided in 2003 that the extension of the Shannon estuary scheme to Pallaskenry and Kildimo should go ahead as planned by Limerick County Council.

I am aware that there is a case relating to the scheme before the courts and I am anxious that I would not say anything that would impinge on that case in any way. However, I understand that the Shannon estuary water supply scheme is in existence now since the early 1980s, that it has provided a consistently good quality and reliable water supply to more than 3,000 people in the Foynes, Shanagolden and Askeaton areas and that it has adequate capacity to supply the Pallaskenry and Kildimo areas with good quality water well into the foreseeable future.

I hope that what I have outlined confirms to the Deputy that my Department's approval of the scheme was only given after serious examination and consideration of the reasons put forward by the council in particular to meet fully existing and future water supply requirements in the Kildimo and Pallaskenry areas and of the limitations of the Bleach Lough source in this regard.