Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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332. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his views on Fingal County Council's recent announcement to locate a monster sewerage plant at Clonshaugh, Dublin 17; his views that a monster plant was needed rather than a number of small sewerage plants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28932/13]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Proposals for the North Dublin Waste Water Treatment Plant/Orbital Sewer project, which was part of the Greater Dublin Strategic Drainage Study (GDSDS), are included in my Department's Water Services Investment Programme 2010 - 2013 as a scheme to advance through planning.

The GDSDS represented a strategic analysis of the existing drainage systems in the Greater Dublin Area and made a number of recommendations to meet future needs having regard to whole-life costs and environmental performance. This study proposed the expansion of a number of wastewater treatment plants in the region, as well as the proposed new regional plant in North Dublin.

The option of having a large number of smaller wastewater treatment plants rather than one large regional plant was considered as part of the GDSDS. The issue was considered again in 2008 when a Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA) report on the matter was published. Both the GDSDS and the SEA reports confirm that a regional plant in North Dublin would have a lesser impact than a large number of smaller plants discharging to ground or surface waters across the Greater Dublin Area.