Batt O'Keeffe (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I want to thank Senator Kitt for raising this issue and for his ongoing interest in matters such as these in his Galway constituency. My Department continues to invest heavily in modern water services infrastructure to support social and economic development. The Water Services Investment Programme 2005-07 includes some 60 major water and sewerage schemes with a value of over €451 million for Galway. Many areas of the county, such as Carna-Kilkieran, Tuam and Headford will now benefit from improved water supplies. Also included are new regional water supply schemes for Costelloe, Gort, Ballinasloe, Clifden, Loughrea, Dunmore-Glenamaddy and Portumna.

In addition, towns and village such as Athenry, Ballinasloe, Barna, Carraroe, Clifden, Glenamaddy, Headford, Kinvara, Milltown, Oughterard and Tuam can also look forward to new or upgraded sewerage schemes.

When selecting individual projects for approval as part of the water services investment programme, the Department takes into account the priorities identified by the local authorities concerned. In this case, Creggs sewerage scheme was fourth on the list of schemes submitted by Galway County Council in response to the Department's request in 2003 to local authorities to produce updated and prioritised assessments of new infrastructural needs in their areas.

The local authorities' assessments of needs are the main input to the ranking of individual schemes by the Department. This process has resulted in Galway County Council currently having an extensive package of works for which formal departmental approval has been given and for which the necessary Exchequer funding is in place. The €451 million worth of projects to be completed over the next few years will transform the quality and coverage of the county's water and waste water infrastructure and will comprehensively deal with the essential infrastructural requirements the council has prioritised. Given the level of competing demand for the available funding, however, and the relating low priority afforded to the Creggs scheme by the council, it was not possible to include it in the water services investment programme at that time.

On the positive side, I must emphasise that the current Water Services Investment Programme 2005-07 is part of an ongoing three-year strategy that is rolled forward at regular intervals. New schemes continue to be added to future phases of the programme in line with prevailing priorities identified by local authorities and national requirements. In this context, local authorities have recently been requested to undertake new assessments of their needs and priorities which will be taken into account when framing the next phase of the water services investment programme.

It is important for the Senator to have a dialogue with Galway County Council to ensure it gives the Creggs the priority he is saying it deserves. If the Senator does that, I can assure him that I have listened carefully to what he has said as regards the Creggs sewerage scheme, and that it will be borne in mind when the next roll-out of the investment programme is being prepared.