Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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The Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, is welcome to the House to deal with this important matter of sewerage schemes in critical villages in County Clare. There are four in particular, namely, Broadford, Cooraclare, Doolin and Carrigaholt. As the Minister of State knows from his many visits to County Clare, it is a big tourism county, which has hundreds of thousands of people coming to visit during peak times of the tourist season.

Doolin has been waiting for decades for an upgraded sewerage system. Hundreds of thousands of people use Doolin to connect to the Aran Islands every year. Many people in Doolin wish to provide infrastructure for the tourism sector. There are people who wish to build accommodation, guest houses, small hotels, boutique hotels and bed and breakfasts. People in the area have been waiting to have the streetscape in Doolin upgraded, with proper public lighting, proper footpaths, improved roadways and so on. The problem is all of this development is deemed to be premature because the existing sewerage system cannot cope with the level of development in place at the moment, not to talk about increased capacity. Doolin has provided the taxpayer and the tourism industry in this country with a unique product and the State has not stepped up to the plate in providing the vital sewerage schemes. Similarly, Carrigaholt is another part of County Clare that has benefited the area, the county and the country with its tourism offering. It also is an area in which many people wish to invest. There would be significant capital investment in the tourism area, were the sewerage scheme up to standard. However, it is not and investment is needed. Cooraclare is just off the Wild Atlantic Way. The village has waited for decades and been promised by umpteen Governments that it will have its upgraded sewerage system in place. It still has not happened. Regarding Broadford in east Clare, there are a number of investors waiting and willing to invest in the village, to improve it, invest in its infrastructure, provide accommodation and small industry and so on. Again, it is all deemed to be premature because the sewerage system that is there is not fit for purpose.

I understand these are considered small schemes in the overall context. The problem is that there is no home to accommodate them. I will suggest what the Minister of State and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, should do. The Oireachtas Members in Clare had a constructive meeting with the Minister in the Custom House yesterday evening. We explained that a pot of money has to be made available in the Department for small schemes and the local authorities need to prioritise a scheme each, perhaps, because this is not just prevalent in County Clare. I am sure it is an issue in other counties as well. A pot of €30 million or €40 million should be made available by the Department over a five-year period that the local authorities could apply to in order to deal with the legacy sewerage schemes that have to be upgraded. They are not big enough for Irish Water and they are too big to be done at a very localised budgeting level. Therefore, they are in between.

I suggest County Clare and the four schemes I have proposed should be a pilot to see how such a scheme would work nationally. I encourage the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to roll this out at national level then because I have no doubt the pilot would be successful.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Conway for raising this issue and providing me with the opportunity to address the matter. Since 1 January 2014, Irish Water has had statutory responsibility for all aspects of public water services planning, delivery and operation at a national, regional and local level. As part of budget 2021, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage secured funding of over €1.4 billion to support water services. This includes €1.3 billion in respect of domestic water services provisioned by Irish Water.

The overall investment will deliver significant improvement in our public water and waste water services, support improved water supplies across Ireland, including rural Ireland, and support a range of programmes delivering improved water quality in our rivers, lakes and marine areas. The programme for Government commits to supporting the take-up of Irish Water's small towns and villages growth programme, which is intended to provide water and waste water growth capacity in smaller settlements, which would not otherwise be provided for in the capital investment programme.

It should be noted that Irish Water is subject to independent economic regulation by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, which determines the revenue required by Irish Water to meet its operating and capital costs and ensure it operates in an efficient manner in delivering its services to customers. Therefore, Irish Water brought forward proposals for a small towns and villages growth programme, as part of the capital investment programme for 2020 to 2024, to the CRU for consideration. The programme is intended to support a number of the national policy objectives and national strategic outcomes under the national planning framework. I understand from Irish Water that an allocation of €97.5 million for this programme was approved by the CRU. I also understand that projects that are now commencing design and investment under the programme will deliver change in the coming years.

Irish Water is working with local authorities across the country in ensuring that investment supports the growth of identified settlements where these are prioritised in line with local authority development plans. Irish Water has informed me that Clare County Council has applied for funding under the small towns and villages growth programme in relation to Doonbeg. This application is under review. In addition to the major investment delivered by Irish Water, my Department also funds rural water investment under the multi-annual rural water programme. This programme supports investment in community-based group schemes, as well as providing supports for improvement of wells and septic tanks.The current investment programme is based on recommendations from the working group established in April 2018 to conduct a review of rural water services. The working group has a two-strand approach of consideration. Strand one considered the composition and distribution of funding under the rural water programme while strand two is considering the long-term future resourcing of rural Ireland and water supply generally.

The issue of wastewater infrastructure in villages not serviced by Irish Water is a matter for the working group, which it will consider as part of its work. The Department expects a further report from this group in 2021. I again wish to acknowledge Senator Conway and his interest in rural Ireland and, in particular, rural infrastructure in County Clare. I was not aware of the meeting yesterday with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, but I will raise it. Obviously, it is important that our towns and villages are given the opportunity to grow. A key component of that is the infrastructure Senator Conway rightly points out is needed in a rural area. I will follow up on that meeting and we will try our best to prioritise it in the new year.

Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I sincerely thank the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, for what I consider a positive update. A slice of that funding for Irish Water needs to be pulled back into the Department. A fund should be created in the Department, with each local authority being given the option of applying for one scheme per year under a new programme which would deal with these legacy wastewater and sewage systems.

To be quite frank, I consider Doolin in County Clare to be a national tourist destination. It is visited by hundreds of thousands of people every year. Those visitors and, more importantly, the people living and working in the village of Doolin deserve an upgraded sewerage system.

Cooraclare is a village just off the Wild Atlantic Way. Thousands of people travel through it and people live there. Again, they have waited long enough for a sewerage system and an upgraded wastewater facility. They deserve it.

Similarly, Carrigaholt is part of our tourism offering in County Clare. It is a super facility and area and part of our Gaeltacht. Again, those people deserve an upgraded wastewater and sewerage system.

Broadford village has people who are prepared to invest in and develop it as a thriving rural area. At the moment, it has stagnated. It is static because, again, people are waiting for an improved sewerage and wastewater system.

I believe the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, should give serious consideration to the fund we spoke about at the meeting with the Minister last night.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Conway again for raising this issue and for working on behalf of the residents in Doolin, Broadford, Cooraclare and Carrigaholt. It is important we respond to the challenges because we are clear in this country that private investment will be weak over the next number of months because of the coronavirus. That gives a key opportunity for the State to step in with public investment to ensure it keeps our economy strong. There is no better way to do that than to improve our infrastructure in our local towns and villages to give them the capacity to grow and realise their full potential. I will follow up on that meeting and we will try our best to prioritise this for 2021.