Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 280: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he has satisfied himself that sewerage and water treatment systems available or proposed here are adequate and in keeping with technological advancement; if his attention has been drawn to the failure of some such plants in the past five years; the action he proposes to address this important issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11441/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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My Department's policy in regard to public water and wastewater treatment facilities is to promote innovation, value for money, effective management and optimum long-term protection of infrastructural investment. As part of that process, public private partnerships, employing the design-build-operate model, have been adopted as the standard procurement method for the provision and management of new water and wastewater treatment works being funded under my Department's water services investment programme.

The design-build-operate model offers a number of distinct advantages over traditional procurement, including single point responsibility for design, construction, operation and maintenance; better allocation of risk, resulting in greater certainty of final capital cost; access to new and innovative technologies with associated technical and economic advantages; and professional operation and maintenance standards backed up by penalty clauses.

My Department has also established and funds the water services national training group which provides training facilities across a wide range of competencies for some 2,000 local authority personnel involved in the operation of public water services infrastructure. Capital funding has been provided by the Department for the construction of dedicated regional training centres at four locations nationally.

In addition to practical training for day-to-day operations, the water services national training group has also undertaken a number of important initiatives to improve local authority management and supervision, both of water services infrastructure directly operated by their own personnel, and operational contracts under public private partnerships. The performance management system is one such initiative and provides a template for recording and reporting on all aspects of operational performance in the case of water and wastewater treatment plants. Implementation of the performance management system is mandatory in the case of public private partnership contracts and local authorities are also encouraged by my Department to utilise it to optimise their own operational arrangements.

The treatment standards achieved by individual water and wastewater treatment plants are identified in the regular reports produced by the Environmental Protection Agency in regard to drinking water quality and urban wastewater discharges. These reports assist local authorities in focusing on operational deficiencies, where they occur, and also help my Department to identify new infrastructural requirements for inclusion in the water services investment programme. The programme, covering 2004 to 2006, includes more than 800 individual schemes and is available in the Oireachtas Library.

Investment under the water services investment programme in the provision of new and upgraded water services facilities, together with improved operation and management structures, has produced a 97.7% compliance rate with mandatory drinking water standards, as reported in the most recent Environmental Protection Agency drinking water report for 2003. Ireland has also achieved a 90% compliance rate with the end 2005 requirements of the EU urban wastewater treatment directive. All remaining schemes needed to attain full compliance have been approved for funding in the Water Services Investment Programme 2004-2006. The corresponding compliance rate in 2000 was only 25%.

Local authorities will this year for the first time report on their performance against a range of 42 service indicators covering the full spectrum of local government activity, including the percentage of drinking water analyses results in compliance with statutory requirements. This will allow members of the public and elected representatives to assess the performance of their authority and to see how their local authority is performing year on year. This process is intended to facilitate the identification of good practice and to encourage all local authorities towards improved performance.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 281: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he has received advice from or given instructions to Kildare County Council in the matter of the permanent alleviation of methane gas permeation at Main Street, Leixlip, County Kildare; if, having regard to his previous discussions in the issue, he will give an indication; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11444/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The lower Liffey valley sewerage scheme is included in my Department's Water Services Investment Programme 2004-2006 to commence construction this year. The scheme, under which the wastewater collection systems in Leixlip, Kilcock, Straffan, Celbridge and Maynooth will be upgraded and improved, also includes measures to eliminate odours from the existing collection system in Leixlip's Main Street.

Contract documents for the scheme were submitted to my Department by Kildare County Council in February. Further information requested from the council in the meantime has since been received and is under examination in the Department. It will be dealt with as quickly as possible.