Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

This is a subject dear to the Minister's heart, given that it is in his local constituency, Galway West. Will he ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he will outline the current status of the sewerage scheme for An Spidéal and supply a timeframe for its delivery?

This has been an issue for many years. Raw sewage is currently pumped into the bay via a 100 m pipe from a holding tank opposite the craft centre or the old hotel near the main beach. The pipe had £60,000 of repairs done to it ten years ago after it had burst, resulting in a fountain of raw sewage pumping out in summers gone by. The council always claimed the sea and the prevailing south-west wind dealt with the outfall. The community of An Spidéal now has proof that the main beach is covered with toxins; it lost its blue flag in 2006.

At the time of the repairs in 1997, Galway County Council eventually agreed to put An Spidéal on a priority list. The community there was promised that within three years there would be a new sewage treatment plant. Each year the new list would come from politicians, via the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, and the local community development group would find out it was still stuck at the bottom. It was promised that a new treatment plant, capable of treating sewage in An Spidéal would be in place by 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2009 but nothing has happened to date.

A county councillor rang in the last few days about another issue and was informed that the list of waste water schemes was before the council again, with a promised completion date of 2012. "Another lie," as the councillor termed it.

The newspapers, TG4 and local radio stations have publicised the issue during the years. The plant will cost €3.5 million and cater for up to 1,000 households. In 2005-06, Pettit and Company carried out an intense survey of the existing system and made proposals. We never saw those proposals or were consulted about them. The report has been delayed and we are not sure if it the Department has even seen it. The water services section within the council is not pushing the scheme. The cryptosporidium in Lough Corrib, because of towns pumping sewage into the lough, has pushed An Spidéal down the list, given the lough's importance to the city water supply.

Around the same time, a developer wanted to knock down and rebuild an old hotel at the beach. He proposed a sewage treatment plant at a cost of €300,000 that would serve the hotel and the village for up to ten years until the new scheme was built. Galway County Council rejected this short-term solution and also refused the hotel application on the grounds of over-density.

The community cannot understand the divergence in costs, the bureaucracy and the continued delay, where An Spidéal is constantly put to the bottom of the list. An Spidéal is a beautiful place with huge potential for tourism. It is important to those who live there that the water is safe and the bay is safe to swim in; they know that is not the case since the blue flag was removed.

We want a limited sewage treatment plant to prevent the building of too many housing estates in future and to stop the impact too many new houses might have on the Irish language. These are the feelings of the local community. I want to hear positive news from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, how it will work with the council to deliver this, and a timeframe for delivery.