Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me the opportunity to raise this particularly important issue. I also thank the Minister for coming into the House to reply. The Ceann Comhairle correctly identified the scheme as the Balyna scheme, which is an offshoot of the famous Allen-Killina group water scheme of many years ago, which was vintage in the 1970s. It had many stages and extensions in the interim period, especially when the Department was directly responsible for administering the schemes.

Unfortunately, in recent years there seems to have been a distraction of one sort or another and the issue affects an area composed of approximately 1,000 families and there are a couple of schools involved as well as the local community. I will not go into the usual mode of criticising the neglect of rural areas. Those people are citizens of this country and of County Kildare. They deserve equal treatment with people anywhere else in the country. A wellfield was developed in recent years but for some reason the local authority did not proceed with it. I suspect that was for several reasons.

I will describe how the aquifer in the area is operating. In recent years the water has been flowing out over the top of an artesian borehole into a nearby stream. At that stage it is free water coming out of the ground and it should have been possible to harness it. First, there was going to be no refund but in the heel of the hunt there was an intervention and the subscribers have had 80% of their funding refunded. However, that is not what they applied for in the first instance. They applied for a group water scheme and the supply of water to their scheme. It is more than 25 years since they first subscribed their money to the scheme. Needless to say, I was very disappointed that the scheme was deemed to go no further, in particular given that a number of households in the catchment area have no supply of drinking water. Their water supply is contaminated with what we call rust, namely iron deposits, and it also has heavy lime deposits which is damaging to washing machines and all kinds of modern kitchen appliances. Sadly, the views and requirements of those people have been neglected without any reason being given. What is worse, in the summer of 2018 the water supply of a school in the area was deemed to be unsafe and measures had to be put in place to ensure a water supply would continue to be provided.

I know the Ceann Comhairle would agree with me if he was sitting where I am now. There is no reason for the scheme not to be re-invented, resubscribed as necessary and for provision to be made for the men, women and children whose families are living in the area, all of whom are taxpayers and are entitled to the same treatment as everybody else. The question is who decided that they are not entitled to this treatment. Is there a reason for the lack of supply or can the water not be supplied economically? It was always thus. There were always people who could not subscribe to a scheme at a particular time. It was left open to them to opt into a scheme at a later time if they wanted to. In the final analysis, insofar as I am concerned, I have never seen a scheme abandoned in that fashion previously and I certainly do not want to see another one even if I live to be 100, which I do not intend to do, as the Ceann Comhairle will be glad to hear.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy Durkan is well on the way.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter with me as a Topical Issue. As the Deputy knows well, group water schemes are independent community-owned enterprises and are an important means of providing piped water to rural areas where no such supply exists. While I as Minister am responsible for overall policy direction and prioritisation of rural water services and for funding for the multi-annual rural water programme, local authorities lead on local implementation of the funding measures. This includes the related administration and requisite capital assessments for inclusion in the funding programme. Group schemes rely on Exchequer funding for infrastructural and maintenance support. The Exchequer also subsidises group water schemes to ensure households do not have to pay for their domestic water supplies.

I wish to address the specific matter raised by the Deputy, which is the group water scheme that was proposed for development in Balyna, County Kildare. The Balyna scheme commenced planning its development in the early 1990s. At that time the scheme proposed to supply more than 800 houses, plus farms and commercial premises, to a relatively large area of north-west County Kildare, covering approximately 4% to 5% of the area of the county.

The Balyna scheme was to source its water from a public water supply – wellfields at Johnstownbridge and Robertstown, which also to be developed and was similarly dependent on Exchequer funding. The Balyna scheme, which was equal to a medium sized public water supply scheme, was very large by group water scheme standards. Accordingly, it was included in my Department's water services investment programme for the period 2007 to 2009 for public schemes. There was little progress on the project over the next few years and it was not included in my Department's subsequent water services investment programme for the period 2010 to 2013. Since 1 January 2014, Irish Water has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local level. Irish Water's primary function is to provide clean safe drinking water to customers and to treat and return wastewater safely to the environment. Irish Water, as single national utility, is taking a strategic, nationwide approach to asset planning end investment, and to meeting customer requirements.

I understand that Kildare County Council and Irish Water met with the Balyna group water scheme in 2015. It became clear at the meeting that there is little prospect of the Johnstownbridge wellfield scheme, the source of supply for the Balyna scheme, being included in the Irish Water capital investment programme. I understand that alternatives were also considered and discussed at the meeting but were ruled out because they were not technically feasible. Therefore, the scheme would not able to proceed either in the short or medium term and the promoters of the scheme were informed accordingly by Irish Water. I understand that soon after the 2015 meeting the scheme decided to wind up.

Acknowledging that costs were incurred in development work on the scheme, my Department recently agreed to recoup an amount of some €79,000 to assist in meeting these costs. Kildare County Council was advised of this position on 14 November 2018. Households in the area of the scheme also have other alternatives to improve their domestic water supply if necessary. The individual wells grant under my Department's rural water programme can be accessed through the council, to assist with the provision of necessary improvement of an individual water supply to households. I again acknowledge the Deputy's interest in this matter. I hope the update I have provided clarifies the evolution of this scheme in its initial years and what has happened in subsequent years.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his reply but I do not accept or agree with the chronology of events as set out because I also attended meetings with the subscribers to the scheme in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and no indication was given at that stage that the scheme would have to cease. In fact, the participants were most anxious that the scheme would proceed at the earliest opportunity.

I am not trying to embarrass the Minister. The fact is that somebody somewhere made a decision. No one is telling the Minister who made that decision but somebody made it and did so without the authority of the people of the area, who trusted they would be provided with a scheme.

The other issue I cannot understand is that, long before Irish Water was invented, an indication was given to the effect that the local authority and the then Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government together did not want to proceed. I tabled parliamentary questions way back, from 2000 onwards, asking why provision of capital funding towards the scheme was not made by the Department and this was never directly answered. The Ceann Comhairle and I know why it did not happen, namely, the money was spent elsewhere. Somebody somewhere decided and all kinds of excuses have been used since to explain why it could not, and should not, proceed. Excuses were put forward on the basis that it was a rural area and the people had alternatives. I ask that somebody would go out to some of those people to whom I made reference, who do not have a drinking water supply and who would love to know what the alternatives are. They should not be placed in a position where they have to spend their own money after all these years.

I ask the Minister to go to the people who know the circumstances of this situation and demand from them that we hear more about what they propose to do.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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My understanding is that the scheme was originally in the proposals for funding but, within the period in which it was there to be progressed, it was not progressed and, therefore, did not make it into a subsequent programme for funding and development. Again, this was all before my time but that is my understanding. I wonder if it is the Deputy's understanding that it was in an initial funding programme but was not progressed in that time and, therefore, fell out of that. My understanding is also that it was understood in 2015 that we were not proceeding with this scheme, that the members of the scheme were aware of this and that it was wound down subsequently. I would be interested to know if the Deputy agrees that was the case in 2015.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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No.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Perhaps the Deputy and I will have a chance to discuss this outside the Chamber so we can get clarity between ourselves as to the chronology. However, since I became Minister with responsibility for water, I have done a lot of work with the National Federation of Group Water Schemes. I have attended its annual conference and have met its representatives in a number of different formats to discuss how we can continue to make sure there is a safe, clean and adequate drinking water supply and waste water system in every part of the country. To that end, in April last year I established a working group to conduct a review of the wider investment needs relating to the rural water services sector. At the end of last year, I received the group's first report, which addresses deliberations on the composition and distribution of funding for the multi-annual rural water programmes from this year to 2021. I will shortly announce details of that programme, which are basically the priority for the next three years of the funding cycle, and that will also include details of a revised individual wells grant, which will be relevant to people in Balyna insofar as we know at the moment that the scheme is not being progressed.