Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this issue and thank the Minister for being here in person to discuss it. The Minister has seen the reports that Fingal County Council has identified the site at Clonshaugh as the potential site for its sewage treatment plant. I am sure he is familiar also with the concerns of local politicians and of residents' groups. Effectively, what we have here is Fingal County Council choosing the least contentious site for itself because the only residents it will affect around that site are actually Dublin City Council residents in a different council area. This is where the Minister's Department has to step in. When there are two competing interests between Fingal County Council and Dublin City Council, there has to be a higher authority that can adjudicate between the two situations. I know of residents in Darndale, Priorswood and Clonshaugh who are furious with the potential for a Fingal-based plant to impact on their lives.

Most people have always argued for a series of smaller plants, and seven is the number that has been most agreeable. From the point of view of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, does the Minister not believe that to have seven plants would be more environmentally sound and would make more sense? The plant would also impact on a local GAA club, Craobh Chiaráin, and its lands. The idea of having a plant the size of Croke Park at that location is surely environmentally unwise, does not take into account the 10,000 submissions that were made from Fingal residents and certainly does not take into account the 2,500 homes that would potentially be beside this site.

Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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The Deputy should conclude.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)
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The main point I want to register with the Minister is that, in my view, Fingal County Council has made a decision which is politically advantageous for it because nobody in Fingal will necessarily be affected by this plant being beside them as it is Dublin City Council residents who will be affected. I would like to get the Minister's response on that point.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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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?

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputies Ó Ríordáin and Cowen for raising this important issue. The greater Dublin drainage project is a critical wastewater project which will facilitate employment and economic growth in the wider Dublin region, not just in one local authority area, and contribute to improving and protecting the environment. From extensive examination over many years, it is clear there will be insufficient drainage and wastewater treatment facilities in the region by 2020 if the project is not progressed at this stage.

This project was part of the greater Dublin strategic drainage study, for which a strategic environmental assessment was completed in 2008. This assessment, which was a systematic evaluation of the likely significant environmental effects of implementing the project, was subject to a statutory public consultation process. In March 2011, Fingal County Council appointed consultants to prepare a preliminary report and environmental impact assessment for the project. In October 2011, as part of the alternative sites assessment and route selection report, Fingal County Council identified nine potential land parcels in the northern part of the greater Dublin area within which a proposed regional wastewater treatment plant could potentially be located, along with a marine outfall and an orbital drainage system.

The council carried out an eight week non-statutory public consultation seeking views on the proposals and the land parcels. These nine land parcels were then assessed as potential locations in which to site the regional wastewater treatment plant. The routes for the orbital drainage system and the marine outfall pipe locations were also assessed. Site-specific information, more in-depth desktop research and detailed site surveys, as well as feedback from the public, were used to assist in identifying the locations with the least impact under 15 criteria. Of these nine land parcels, three sites were then identified by the council as emerging preferred site options in the alternative sites assessment and route selection report. The three emerging preferred site options were located at Annsbrook, Clonshaugh and Newtowncorduff. A new eight-week non-statutory public consultation ran from May to July 2012. As part of this process, four open days were arranged by the council where the public could meet with the project team and discuss the report.

Following consideration of all submissions, Fingal County Council yesterday announced that its consultants have published a report entitled, The Alternative Sites Assessment and Routes Selection Report Phase 4: Preferred Sites and Routes Report, for the greater Dublin drainage project. The report details the process used to appraise the three short-listed site options and identifies the preferred site option for the development at Clonshaugh. Now that the preferred site is identified, the council will prepare detailed plans and complete an environmental impact statement. This EIS, together with a planning application under the strategic infrastructure Act, will be submitted to An Bord Pleanála. An Bord Pleanála will carry out its own statutory public consultation on the project, which typically involves an oral hearing. In advance of that, I understand the project team is holding public consultations over the next eight weeks to seek feedback on what should be considered in the EIS.

In response to Deputy Cowen, I point out that if I was to meet residents while the matter was about to be referred to An Bord Pleanála, I would certainly be accused of political interference.

I have refused to meet residents because I am statutorily part of the process as Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and, therefore, cannot meet any of the residents.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)
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I thank the Minister for his reply. I take issue with the suggestion that there has been an extensive consultation process because, as I have already said, the bulk of the residents who will be adjacent to this proposed site in Clonshaugh are resident in the Dublin City Council area and have not been involved in any consultation process undertaken by Fingal County Council. There is a suspicion that this location was chosen purely because it would not have an impact on any residents Fingal County Council is charged with looking after.

I reject the Minister's statement. Given that the funding is coming from his Department, we must question the construction of something as large as Croke Park in a place such as Clonshaugh and the environmental implications thereof, because it will surely be shot down by Europe at the end of the day. Why are we waiting for that process to be completed instead of looking at a more low-scale development, such as the proposal for seven plants across that area to facilitate what we are trying to do? The vast majority of residents who have contacted my office about this colossal plant have not been consulted about it. We need to look again at what I consider to be a wrong-headed project.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his response. I do not disagree with the process that has emerged since 2008 in respect of the necessity for a drainage scheme. I do not question the chronological series of events that has evolved since then concerning preferred route selection and the public consultation process that emanated from that. Before the Minister gives his sanction to and commits the funding - in addition to the €18 million already in place - for the next stage of this development, which is the preparation of a detailed environmental impact statement that will be submitted to An Bord Pleanála, I ask him to take account of the representations made to members of my party in the greater Dublin area and public representatives within his own party and that of his Coalition partners who question the manner in which the consultation process was conducted. Many feel they did not have a meaningful part to play in that process. They say they need a meeting with the Minister to be updated about the process and for the Minister to reaffirm the consultation process as being beyond reproach. If that is the case, the Minister should sit down with them and tell them so they can be satisfied that every effort has been made by all those who represent the State in respect of the funds that are spent on behalf of the taxpayer to achieve the desired result.

Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Thank you, Deputy.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister should not ignore the feelings of people and the representations being made across all political parties on this issue. He should show the sort of leadership we expect from him as Minister with responsibility in this regard.

Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Before the Minister replies, I remind Deputy Cowen that when the Chair is speaking to him, he should not ignore it. I ask him not to speak over me and will note it for future reference. He will not do it again.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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It is clear from what Deputies Ó Ríordáin and Cowen have said that there will be unease about where any plant is located. As a public representative, I am not immune to that. However, it is also clear that we need the facilities. We will have difficulties with job creation and opportunities in the greater Dublin area if we do not invest in infrastructure such as wastewater treatment systems in the years ahead. No matter what location is chosen, there will obviously be some concerns at local level. A process was laid down by various planning and environment Acts when Deputy Cowen's party was in government and it was laid down for a good reason. If all politicians were to be involved in making decisions about the siting of these facilities, in many cases, developments would never happen. It is an independent process that involves a detailed consultation programme. I have sympathy with what Deputy Ó Ríordáin said about not being consulted, but he will get another opportunity because the planning application must be lodged, An Bord Pleanála will be involved and there will be another consultation period during which people can make submissions. That is the way for people to indicate their concerns about these matters. These are the devolved statutory functions laid down under the planning Acts over the years. I can certainly list the necessary processes that must be completed for the benefit of the Deputies if they wish, but as somebody who just provides the funding for a project once it goes through the various stages, including An Bord Pleanála, my hands are tied.