Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 557: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if an investigation has taken place with a view to determination of the extent to which overloaded sewerage treatment plants are a pollution threat to the waterways; the action taken in response; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13867/07]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Environmental Protection Agency is required under section 61(3) of the Environmental Protection Act 1992 to report on a biennial basis on the quality of effluents being discharged from treatment plants, sewers or drainage pipes which are vested in, controlled or used by local authorities. The Agency's latest report — Urban Waste Water Discharges in Ireland — A Report of the Years 2004 and 2005, (which is available in the Oireachtas Library), reviews all agglomerations with a population equivalent exceeding 500 and trends for the period 1998 to 2005.

Management of sewerage schemes is generally the responsibility of the relevant local authority, which has a range of instruments and measures available to ensure quality standards are maintained. In addition, my Department coordinates and finances a major programme of investment in new and improved wastewater infrastructure, as set out in the Water Services Investment Programme 2005-2007, (also 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 identified water services needs. Local authorities were requested to carry out new assessments in 2006 and these will inform project selection in the next phase of the Programme. In undertaking the assessments, authorities are asked to have regard to specific criteria, including relevant national and EU environmental and public health statutory requirements and standards.

Finally, I propose in the near future to make Regulations establishing a new authorization regime for discharges from waste water works operated by local authorities.