Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 249: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if his Department has received an application under any scheme operated by his Department for funding in the provision of a new sewerage scheme (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22174/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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In January 2001, my Department approved Kildare County Council's application for funding for a proposed sewerage scheme at Rathangan under the Serviced Land Initiative. The Council subsequently sought approval for the proposal as a major capital project under the Water Services Investment Programme where it would attract a higher level of Departmental funding.

The proposal was ranked eighth in the list of wastewater schemes submitted by Kildare County Council in November 2003 in response to my Department's request to local authorities to undertake fresh assessments of the needs for capital water services works in their areas and to prioritise their proposals on the basis of the assessments. The priority lists were taken into account in the framing of subsequent phases of the Water Services Investment Programme published in 2004 and 2005. Because of the priority afforded to the scheme by the Council, it had not been possible to include it in the Programme. However, the approval of the scheme under the Serviced Land Initiative remains in place. Moreover, all authorities have recently been asked by my Department to carry out new needs assessments for their areas and to submit the results to the Departments by 31 July 2006. This will afford Kildare County Council an opportunity to review its water and wastewater infrastructural priorities, including those for the location in question. The priorities emerging from the new assessments will inform future phases of the Water Services Investment Programme.