Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 955: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he will increase the level of grant provision for sewage connections to mains from groups who are currently on septic tank systems; the reason the grant scheme for water is higher than for sewage connections; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10119/07]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Unlike the abstraction, treatment and distribution of water by a group water scheme, group sewerage scheme activity is confined to the provision of significantly less costly collection systems and this is reflected in the relative values of the grants currently available.

My Department is funding a pilot programme, proposed by the National Rural Water Monitoring Committee, to test a range of new, small-scale wastewater collection and treatment systems under Irish conditions. The objective of the pilot programme is to evaluate new approaches to meeting the wastewater collection and treatment needs of rural communities and to examine the potential role for group sewerage schemes in extending collection systems to households outside the catchment of new or existing sewerage schemes.

Construction of the pilot projects is currently underway and monitoring of the performance of the new infrastructure by the National Rural Water Monitoring Committee will commence immediately after commissioning takes place. I have asked the Committee to report on the results as they become available.

I intend to review the grants for group sewerage schemes in light of the outcome of the pilot programme.