Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I accept there might be some implication that we could change projects. I do not want CLÁR to give that impression. I will consider that between now and Report Stage because that was not the intention. I accept that meaning could be taken from it.

I will explain what worries me. I set up a scheme under CLÁR for topping up water schemes and it has been very successful. Very simple criteria were set down. If the scheme cost over a certain amount and if the local authority signalled that the best way of providing water for that area was to provide 100% top up, we would provide that top up once the householder paid a certain fixed amount. The first part was easy because tendered prices were supplied by the contractors and these could not be inflated because they were tendered competitively.

A member of the Senator's party who is a county councillor, a member of Údarás and a very good friend of mine, Pól Ó Foighil, tipped me off that due to the creation of the scheme, the road restoration prices had suddenly gone through the ceiling, in other words, the county council was asking me to do the road as well as the water. He was involved in the scheme and he knew about it. I referred the scheme to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government which referred it to their officials who inspected the works. They found the county council had raised the specification for the water pipe. The officials advised me that these schemes should be specified according to the minimum criteria laid down by the Department for such schemes rather than being a deluxe model. They advised me of a very useful rule that no more than 25% of the cost of the scheme should be spent on road restoration and on ancillary costs, in other words, engineers and other services who could name their own prices. I amended the criteria in order to protect the State's interests and to close a loophole by which the scheme could be abused. The scheme has been incredibly successful.

People often use these schemes in a way which was not originally intended.