Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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207. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the total number of group water schemes in operation broken down by county; the total number of these schemes that are grant aided; and the total cost incurred to the State for all group water schemes over the 2014 to 2016 period, in tabular form. [40804/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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During 2015, my Department established a working group involving key stakeholders in the rural water sector, which includes group water schemes, to address the development of the sector within the overall water reform programme to ensure that the programme responds effectively to current and future needs. Local authorities, the Water Services Transition Office, Irish Water, the National Federation of Group Water Schemes and my Department are represented on the working group.

The tasks of the working group include the development of a multi-annual approach to targeting funding to meet priority needs of the sector and to ensure that there is appropriate integration of the Department's Rural Water Programme and Irish Water's Capital Investment Programme so as to fully support rural development and address any environmental issues that may arise .

The compilation of a full dataset of group water schemes across the country is underway including the mapping of such schemes which is a critical aspect in the development of this sector. However, the Drinking Water Report 2014published by the Environmental Protection Agency (which is available on their website at ) outlines that there are 512 public group water schemes (supplied by Irish Water) and 421 private group water schemes (supplied from private sources), bringing the total number of schemes to 933.

In January 2016, my Department wrote to local authorities, advising them of a new multi-annual approach to the funding of group water schemes for 2016 and beyond under the Rural Water Programme. Details of the new multi-annual programme are available on my Department’s website at

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My Department recoups funding for group water schemes to local authorities which administer scheme funding on behalf of my Department. This recoupment consists of both grants for improvement/upgrading of existing schemes or development of new schemes (which includes extensions to existing schemes) and subsidies, as a contribution towards the annual operational cost of the domestic element of schemes. The table sets out the amounts recouped over the period 2014 - 2016.

The amounts in the table do not include the administration and overhead costs of local authorities in administering the Rural Water Programme (approx. €1.8m per annum) which are also recouped to local authorities by my Department.