Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Senator for raising this issue. The Department's Water Services Investment Programme 2005-07, published in December 2005, includes some 60 major water and sewerage schemes for Galway, with a value of over €450 million. I am pleased to confirm that the Glenamaddy sewerage scheme is included in the investment programme as a scheme approved to start construction in 2007. The necessary funding has been allocated for it and it will be able to go to construction once all the necessary planning and procurement procedures have been completed.

My Department is committed to delegating more responsibilities and functions to local authorities whenever possible in order to strengthen local government and, where water services infrastructure is concerned, to also speed up and improve the efficiency of approval and procurement procedures. Previously, once the preliminary report for a project costing up to €2.5 million had been approved under the Department's water services investment programme, the local authority could usually proceed to construction without further reference to the Department. The Minister, Deputy Roche, has recently further extended this devolution of functions.

The position now is that for every project in the water services investment programme costing less than €5 million, local authorities are entitled, after they have received preliminary approval, to proceed right through to construction without further reference to the Department. This means that the local authority does not have to come back to the Department to get approval for contract documents or to place a contract after the tender process has been completed. I am optimistic that, as well as increasing local autonomy, this measure will have a positive effect in accelerating progress on smaller schemes in the water services investment programme.

The estimated cost of the Glenamaddy sewerage scheme is under €4 million and this should allow it to benefit from the streamlined procurement procedures for smaller projects. A revised preliminary report for the scheme has been submitted by Galway County Council and is being examined in the Department. However, additional information has had to be sought from the council to allow the preliminary report to be cleared. Once this additional information comes to hand, the Department will finalise its examination of the preliminary report as quickly as possible. When it is approved the council will then be free to proceed right through to construction. I hope the remaining queries can shortly be sorted out and that construction can begin on the Glenamaddy sewerage scheme next year as planned.