Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 577: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his plans to ensure the ready availability of sufficient supplies of domestic drinking water from now until 2017; his plans to meet any deficiencies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7741/07]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Management of public drinking water supplies is generally the responsibility of the local authorities, which have a range of instruments and measures available to them to produce and conserve sufficient stocks to meet anticipated needs and to ensure quality standards. In addition, my Department coordinates and finances a major programme of investment in improved infrastructure, active leakage control, telemetry and rehabilitation of water mains. Details of such projects are set out in the Water Services Investment Programme 2005-2007 which is available in the Oireachtas Library.

The schemes included in the Programme are derived mainly from regular assessments of needs undertaken by local authorities, at my Department's request, as an input to the overall strategy for meeting necessary water supply and treatment requirements. In carrying their assessments in 2006, my Department asked local authorities to take particular account of: relevant national and EU drinking water quality statutory requirements and standards; the provisions of their Development Plans or draft Development Plans and any strategic regional planning guidelines or local area plans; the National Spatial Strategy; relevant reports and studies, such as the National Water Study, and any relevant studies/reports commissioned locally; the Environmental Protection Agency's reports on the quality of drinking water; the need for continued support for social and economic activity and development; and the need to address infrastructural deficits in small rural towns.

The 2006 needs assessments will inform project selection under the next phase of the Water Services Investment Programme. Some €4.7 billion will be spent on water services infrastructure under the new National Development Plan 2007 — 2113, €1 billion more than the unprecedented investment already put in place in this sector under the previous Plan. Substantial increases in water treatment capacity and improvements in distribution systems are being achieved as a result. Schemes completed in the period 1997 to 2006 have produced additional drinking water treatment capacity equivalent to the needs of a population of some 1.2 million.

I am satisfied that the forward planning procedures and resources are in place to ensure that the national water supply infrastructure can cater adequately for current and anticipated requirements.