Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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695. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the fact that a community water scheme (details supplied) that received grant approval in June 2020 has been informed that it now has to find an additional nine connections or €10,411.75; the reason these charges were not included in the initial approval; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18639/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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In 2019 Mayo County Council bid under the Multi-annual Rural Water Programme 2019-2021 for the proposed Community Water Connection (“the project”) in the details supplied. The bid was based on participation by 17 houses and at an estimated cost of €229,500 or €13,500 per house.

The Expert Panel that examined the bids under the Programme did not recommend any projects, where the unit cost exceeded €10,000 per house. This bid was therefore not approved by my Department when approvals and funding allocations were announced in October 2019.

Subsequently, the local authority engaged with the promoters of the project and through this work, participation was increased to 29 houses or €9,835 per house. The project was then approved by my Department as this brought the unit cost to under the threshold set by the Panel.

My Department understands now, arising from tendering of the proposed works earlier this year, that the estimated cost of the project is now considerably more than that originally estimated by the local authority.

My Department further understands that the local authority have established, through discussions with the promoters, that there are 41 houses in total in the area of the proposed project. The local authority have asked the promoters to engage within their community to increase participation in the project to its fullest.

The local authority made a submission to my Department earlier this week on the project. My Department will examine this submission as quickly as possible.