Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Gallagher for raising this issue in order to bring some clarity to it. My Department’s new multi-annual rural water programme 2016-2018 includes funding of group sewerage schemes, through measure 4(d), where clustering of households on individual septic tanks is not a viable option, particularly from an environmental perspective.

In December 2015, my Department received sanction from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to increase the maximum grant per house to €6,750 - up from €6,500 - to cover a limited number of new demonstration group sewerage schemes, namely, two per year. In addition, sanction was also given for these new demonstration group sewerage schemes, in exceptional circumstances, to avail of a supplemental grant, subject to my Department’s approval, where the project represents the most economically advantageous option. Where a supplemental grant is approved, the overall level of funding from the rural water programme is limited to 90% of the cost per house subject to a minimum contribution of €2,250 per house.

Local authorities were invited in January 2016 to submit bids for consideration by my Department under the new multi-annual rural water programme 2016-2018, as Senator Gallagher mentioned. A proposed Milltown group sewerage scheme was included by Monaghan County Council under measure 4(d). The proposed scheme, with an estimated cost of €280,000, would cover 32 houses and have a unit cost of €8,750 per house.

In total, 83 bids were received from 17 local authorities requesting funding under this measure. Under the new multi-annual funding framework, an expert panel was convened by my Department to examine the 2016 bids from local authorities for projects under a number of the programme’s measures, including measure 4(d), and to make recommendations to the Department on funding. The panel recommended a priority list under this measure, including the Milltown scheme at priority five, and my Department accepted the panel’s recommendations in full when approving the rural water allocations for 2016.

As only two demonstration group sewerage schemes can be advanced in any given year, funding will not be available to Monaghan County Council for the Milltown scheme until 2018, unless a scheme prioritised higher than Milltown by the council is not in a position to be advanced this year, whereby in which case the Milltown scheme would be given a higher priority. It is intended to make interim funding allocations under the programme to the local authorities by the end of March 2017 and any re-prioritisation of the Milltown scheme would be notified to Monaghan County Council at that time. Therefore, it will be the end of the month before we have an update.