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

I thank Senator Kitt for raising this issue. The Department's water services investment programme 2005-2007, published in December 2005, includes some 60 major water and sewerage schemes, with a value of more than €451 million, for Galway. The Mountbellew sewerage scheme is being bundled with a number of other schemes in the county for procurement purposes and is scheduled to commence in 2007. Funding has been allocated and it will be able to go to construction once the planning and procurement procedures have been completed. My Department is currently awaiting Galway County Council's preliminary report on the proposed scheme. As the cost of the scheme is under €5 million, it will benefit from the more streamlined procurement procedures introduced earlier this year, which reduced from four to two the number of approval stages.

The scheme is an important one for the local community. It will ensure that the town has a sewerage scheme capable of meeting current and future demands, and that environmental standards will be preserved and improved for the benefit of the town and its residents. I assure Senator Kitt that I am keen to ensure the scheme gets under way and I understand the frustration of the people in Mountbellew in this regard. My Department will deal with the preliminary report and treat it in as urgent a manner as possible once it is received from Galway County Council. The Senator might discuss it with Galway County Council so that it can be expedited and forwarded to the Department.