Michael Mullins (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Fergus O'Dowd.

Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to take this matter.

The people of Bandon are devastated that SIAC has walked away from the main drainage and sewerage scheme in the town. Even though there was major disruption in the town during these works, very little of the contract was executed. I wonder when a new contractor will come to take SIAC's place. When the consultants who had been appointed decided to pull out of Ireland, a short time after the appointment of SIAC, it meant that SIAC had to deal directly with Cork County Council. It appears that severe difficulties came to the surface within weeks of this development. The main drainage and sewerage scheme is under the auspices of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. The imparting of funds to Cork County Council means it is now in charge of the project. Consequently, I ask the Minister to take charge of the contract and this operation.

Since 2009, the people of Bandon had been lobbying strongly for interim gravel removal to take place during the summer months outside the fisheries embargo, that is, from 1 May to 30 September each year. The businesses and residents of Bandon are convinced that this approach has been of assistance during times of heavy rainfall. There have been seven serious incidents in recent years, in addition to the major flooding that occurred on 19 November 2009, when over 250 commercial premises and private houses were flooded. In some instances, the water level rose to between 2 m and 2.5 m.

The main overall factor is that Bandon has been shamefully neglected for over 30 years. This applies to previous Governments also. The town allocates plenty of money to Cork County Council in rates, but it has very little to show for it. Some important questions need to be posed. Why did Cork County Council award a ¤7.5 million project to a ¤2.5 million bidder? It sounds ludicrous and ridiculous. We understand it was subcontracted again. Why was that done? It might have been the lowest tender, but the Minister of State knows that alarm bells would ring straight away if a project in his territory which had been costed at ¤8 million was put out to tender at ¤3 million. That is what happened in this case.

Cork County Council was dealing with the contractors after they had moved in. When they realised within a few weeks that they could not make a go of it, they pulled out. The scheme has been knocked back for several months as a result. It is possible that the delay will extend to well over one year. How is it possible for the collapse of a scheme that was being publicly funded and is of such importance for the town - local people have been waiting for it since 1992 - to be a matter of such secrecy? Nobody has answers. The local town council is doing its best. Officials at managerial and senior engineering levels in Cork County Council have gone silent when questions have been raised about what has gone wrong. A public inquiry of some sort within Cork County Council is almost warranted to see what has gone wrong.

Obviously, it did not help matters when a huge amount of interference, in the form of major stoppages and delays, was caused by the archaeological department. At one stage, this separate department advocated putting a kink in a pipe to place it under the Bandon wall, rather than through the wall, as other service providers have done. I refer to an area under the road near Allen Square. We all appreciate the significance and importance of the past and the heritage of Bandon town, but it seems to have been forgotten that Bandon is fighting for its very survival. Some businesses are barely hanging on by the skin of their teeth.

When I visited the town in recent weeks, I met some members of the flood committee, all of whom are volunteers. The people in question cross all political divides. My colleagues in other parties are fighting hard for this project also. The flood committee has been on high alert, sometimes until 3 a.m. or 4 a.m., as its members have waited to see whether the water level on the River Bandon will subside. It sometimes reaches the level of the footpath. In one case, all of the items in a shop have to be shifted from 1.5 m down in case the premises floods and items are lost again.

The other big factor is that most of these properties will not get insurance. I know the Minister of State is here to deal with the sewerage scheme. The flood relief programme should be allied to this scheme. I often wonder why there is no joined-up thinking. I met the Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW, Deputy Brian Hayes, when he visited the area in connection with another project a few months ago. They are being undertaken in tandem, but there is no joined-up thinking. They should work together. Overall, it will probably take three or four years before this job is completed. It is absolutely ridiculous. Somebody should put the squeeze on Cork County Council - I know the Minister of State will probably not do so - to find out what went wrong.

Why was the contract awarded in this manner? Why is there such a big delay? It is not fair that the people of Bandon should have to suffer and worry this year and probably next year also. We have very high flood levels and an increasing amount of water is falling. There is deep concern and worry. I met someone about two weeks ago who told me that many people could not sleep when there was a flood alert. They stay awake all night until they know the flood waters have subsided. It is an ongoing worry. The problem was probably not as acute 20 years ago. These schemes have become more important as rainfall levels have increased.

I hope the Minister of State will have some positive news for me and I am not in any way trying to throw nasty aspersions at him. I am just saying something went radically wrong in this case. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan, or somebody else should get a handle on it. I think the Minister is in charge of Cork County Council and answers should be given to the people in Bandon who are not getting the answers they require. They are being left in the dark. They are being drip-fed information on a need-to-know basis, which is not good enough. There should be an overall plan. The people of Bandon deserve more than they have been getting for the past few years.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for bringing this matter to the attention of the Department. I am responding to the debate on behalf of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan.

Contracts for a wastewater treatment plant and a network upgrade for phase 2 of the Bandon sewerage scheme were included in the 2010-13 water services investment programme of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government as being among the contracts to start during the life of the programme, at a current estimated cost of ¤13 million. The network upgrade element of the scheme comprises the provision of storm and foul sewerage works in Bandon town and its environs. The new sewerage infrastructure will lead to the separation of storm and foul flows in the existing combined sewerage system and provide for increased foul wastewater collection facilities. It will also provide storm sewerage infrastructure for low-lying areas of the town. As the Senator said, such areas experience flooding from the River Bandon during times of high flow. The Bandon Estuary downstream of Innishannon is a designated sensitive area under the urban wastewater treatment directive. The proposed scheme will ensure foul wastewater is collected to the best practical level and transferred for treatment to the existing wastewater plant.

On 8 June 2011 Cork County Council submitted revised contract documents for the network element of the scheme to the Department. These contract documents were approved by the Minister on 29 August 2011. Following the tender process, Cork County Council submitted a funding proposal of ¤3.9 million to enable it to award the contract to the most economically advantageous tenderer.

The Minister approved funding for the contract on 22 February 2012, Cork County Council awarded the contract in March 2012 and the contractor commenced preliminary work in March 2012.

The Department was notified of contractual issues in August 2012. Subsequently, the matter was referred to conciliation and a conciliator was appointed. Conciliation meetings took place between the parties in September and October 2012 on the principle of four of the disputed issues. The contractor and the council agreed to the termination of the contract by mutual consent and a commercial settlement was agreed between the parties. The Department raised no objection in principle to the settlement but requested clarification on a number of issues. These clarifications were submitted to the Department on 10 December 2012.

A new consulting engineer has been appointed as consultant to complete the project and is preparing contract documents for the scheme to complete all outstanding works. It is anticipated that the contract will be tendered in the first quarter of 2013 and the work will recommence in the third quarter of 2013.

Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. He has been very careful not to put too much of a thumb of blame, so to speak, on Cork County Council, to specify the reason the contractor pulled out or to say why the contract was awarded. As I said, the contract was valued at a sum in excess of ¤7 million. As a previous member of Cork County Council, I am deeply concerned that despite the council having failed to deliver this project in the past 12 to 18 months, a similar situation could recur.

The cheapest is not always the best. I am very concerned that we will have further problems. The most important point is that the ratepayers and ordinary people of Bandon, whose homes are being flooded, are not being informed in an open and transparent manner, as they are entitled to be. The fear, the worry and the misinformation that has sometimes been put abroad must be brought out. There is a commitment that the contract to complete the works will commence in the third quarter of this year. I hope it does because, if it does not, outright war will break out in Bandon, people will not pay their rates and they will start marching. The people of Bandon town and its environs are a very patient bunch. To be honest, they deserve a lot more than they have been getting.

I put a lot of the blame on Cork County Council. While the Minister, Deputy Hogan, is the overseer, it was ludicrous for the council to award a contract, when anyone with a small bit of common sense would have known the contractor could not fulfil the contract for the price given, which was about a third of the overall cost. It does not add up.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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I will bring the views expressed by the Senator to the attention of the Minister. I want to say clearly that all county councils have procedures for asking questions and for the interrogation of officials in regard to any issue. What I would do, if it was in my county, is contact the county manager, get a meeting with the officials and get the facts on the table. If as the Senator alleges, Cork County Council is not being transparent or accountable, he should kick up a stink over that with Cork County Council. There is also the issue in regard to costs. If the council does not provide the Senator with the documents he seeks, it should do so because, under the Freedom of Information Act, it is obliged by statute to provide him with whatever it believes it can provide. The history of this matter is obviously of deep concern to the Senator and his constituents. He is entitled to get that information in whatever way he can, using the democratic mechanisms that are in place, including his position as a Senator, through his councillors and so on.

The ultimate question is what is happening now. A consultant has been appointed and it is anticipated that work will commence in the third quarter of this year, which will hopefully help to alleviate the situation in regard to the high winter floods that may arise later in the year.