Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

Almost a year ago to the day I raised this issue, on St. Cecelia's Day, 22 November. I had raised it a few years previously in the Dáil and a few years before that in the Dáil also. It relates to bringing the grant for the group sewerage scheme up to the same level as the group water scheme. I am very familiar with the group water scheme's success. Its aim was to increase water quality and enhance water conservation, all the issues that are pertinent to drinking water. When I raise the issue of group sewerage schemes, people tend to say that no one wants them and there is no pressure to have them. However, there is no pressure for group sewerage scheme grants for individuals because the grant is not at a level that would encourage people to get involved in it.

I have been raising this matter since former Deputy Bobby Molloy, a colleague whom the Minister of State knows well, was Minister of State at the then Department of the Environment. At that stage, the Minister said that a pilot scheme would be introduced to examine the whole issue of group sewerage schemes. When that was done, the funding element would be considered. I am raising this now because, as of last year, construction work on the pilot project was completed. Commissioning was undertaken and monitoring of the performance of the new infrastructure commenced. Preliminary results were made available to the national rural water monitoring committee, presumably before Christmas last year. The lessons learned then with regard to the technologies and the costs associated with the treatment and collection system of the pilot project would have informed policy in determining the potential role for group sewerage schemes in the provision of waste water collection systems.

The Minister asked the national rural water monitoring committee to report to him on the results of the pilot projects, and to include the role of group sewerage schemes into the future in the provision of waste water collection systems. The Minister at that time said he was committed to reviewing the level of grant aid for group sewerage schemes when the report and the recommendations of the national water monitoring committee became available to him, and he felt this would happen in the short term.

My issue at this point is that, a year later, the short period of time envisaged this time last year may have been met. We are all aware of the desperate situation, particularly in Galway, where again people have been drinking bottled water. I lived in Nigeria for a year and I know the concept of boiling, straining, re-boiling and freezing water. Many of us take it for granted that water from the tap is safe.

One pollutant, which may not be the major one, must be the proliferation of septic tanks. We are geared towards the concept of every half an acre having a septic tank. This is one way of dealing with this. We also talked about environmental protections and the fact that tanks will have to be emptied more regularly and overseen more often. It is a win-win situation for everyone if we can move to group provision of sewerage schemes. This will happen, and we can bring people along with us, only if the level of grant aid is commensurate with that of the group water scheme. As evident from the recent water quality report for Ireland, there are many problems with which we must deal, but there is no doubt septic tanks is one of them. Until we embrace that we will go nowhere.

We in Donegal feel the pilot schemes introduced there can be often of the negative variety. We would have loved one of the positive pilot projects but we are beyond that discussion now. The pilot project has taken place, monitoring is taking place and I would like to think we can give the matter the urgent attention is deserves, particularly having regard to the recent report on water quality. I hope the Minister of State has good news for me today on driving the allocation for group sewerage schemes up to the same level as group water schemes, and embracing the wishes and needs of county councils around the country to improve water quality.