Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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9. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his plans to increase group sewerage schemes to support householders. [24988/17]

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Right across the country, there are numerous smaller housing estates with proprietary treatment plants, often serving ten or 15 houses. In many cases, the treatment plant is not operating, which is causing pollution, blockages and difficulty for householders. They want to put it right but are struggling to do so. They cannot get access to the taking-in-charge initiative. Irish Water does not want them. The councils have no budgets for upgrading sewerage plants and the residents themselves cannot afford to do the work. Can the scheme for the group sewerage grants be upgraded to accommodate these families?

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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My Department’s new multi-annual rural water programme 2016 to 2018 was developed through a working group of key stakeholders involving local authorities, the water services transition office, Irish Water, the National Federation of Group Water Schemes, as well as my Department. The programme provides for the funding of demonstration group sewerage schemes through measure 4(d), where clustering of households on individual septic tanks is not a viable option, particularly from an environmental perspective.

Local authorities were invited in January 2016 to submit bids under the programme. The invitation envisaged no more than two demonstration group sewerage projects being brought forward under the measure in any one year of the three-year programme. The demonstrations will allow my Department, over the course of the programme, to determine the appropriate enduring funding levels and relationship with the current grant scheme.

As new demonstration group schemes have been identified for the duration of the programme, and as only two demonstration projects can be advanced in any given year, my Department does not propose to modify the programme at this point. My Department will give consideration to the scope of the measure under the programme from 2019 onwards having regard to the implementation of the existing multi-annual rural water programme 2016 to 2018. My Department will also be giving wider consideration to the report of the Joint Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services as it relates to the rural water programme.

This issue has been raised by many other colleagues, including Deputy Durkan, who is also in the Chamber. We are aware of the matter but there is no scheme in place with enough money to deal with all the applications. Deputy Moynihan's own area of Cork would have applied for about five under that scheme. There were 83 in total. We are limited to two per year at this time.

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State. He is focusing on the fact that only two schemes are being carried out each year. The big issue is that they are aimed at plants that would be taken in charge. These developments are never intended to be taken in charge. They are to be stand-alone plants. A management company is often supposed to have been put in place although it might never have got off the ground. The fact that the plants would not be taken in charge is one of the reasons the residents are not able to access the existing grant scheme. The scheme needs to be modified. We are really only talking about small money. Less than €2 million a year is spent on the current scheme and often the maximum allocation is not spent. The scheme is due for renewal over the next year so it is an opportune time to consider modifying it. We have people who recognise that there is a problem and want to take action and do the right thing but cannot afford to.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I would probably agree with the Deputy. The scheme is being reviewed and we should see if we can modify it. A number of Deputies have brought forward different projects and solutions. There is often a question mark over the costing rather than the funding of such projects. Different suggestions have much lower costs associated with them in terms of estimates and so on. That is something we are analysing as well. We will look at it. As it stands, we do not currently have the funding to bring forward any more projects. It is something for the review and I would be happy to consider different ways to make it happen.

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The current scheme is finishing up for 2018. Can the Minister of State give a commitment that over the coming months, when he is starting that review, he will take these into consideration? Will he report back on the timeline for the review?

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The commitment I can give is that we are already looking at the different mechanisms for doing that outside the formal review. The funding is locked in for the next year and a half. I have been doing ongoing work with officials looking at different solutions.