Confusion on status of sewerage scheme

COUNTY councillors for North Clare are to request a meeting with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government in an effort to get clarity on the future of a sewerage scheme in one of the area’s most popular resorts.
Confusion surrounds the Doolin Sewerage Scheme, with councillors alleging they are receiving contradictory information from the Department of the Environment about the possibility of funding for the scheme, a representative of the minister saying it cannot allocate funding because the council did not apply for it and Clare County Council saying it was precluded from doing so under the department’s own eligibility requirements.
The decision to seek a meeting with the minister follows a request by Councillor Richard Nagle to Clare County Council asking them to outline, or provide, all correspondence received from the department in relation to proposals for the Doolin Sewerage Scheme.
“The delay in the provision of the sewerage scheme has delayed the provision of all other infrastructure in the area,” Councillor Nagle said at Monday’s meeting of local councillors.
The Ennistymon councillor described the situation as “outrageous” and accused Minister Phil Hogan of “giving false hope” to a deputation from the area on the issue.
Councillor Bill Slattery agreed that a local deputation had met with the minister and they felt he had given them a positive response but now “he is kicking the can down the road”.
A letter from the minister’s office to Clare County Council stated that “the Doolin Sewerage Scheme was not amongst the priority contracts and schemes selected for inclusion” in the current Water Services Investment Programme (WSIP) 2010 to 2013.
The letter went on to say, “The programme aims to prioritise projects that target environmental compliance issues and support economic and employment growth. A key input to the development of the programme was the assessment of needs prepared by the local authorities, including Clare County Council, in response to the department’s request to the authorities in 2009 to review and prioritise their proposals for new capital works in their areas.
“These were subsequently appraised in the department in the context of the funds available and key criteria that complemented those used by the authorities. Inevitably, through this process, certain projects that had been promised had to give way to others that were more strategically important at that time.”
According to the letter from the department, progress under the WSIP 2010-2013 was reviewed in mid-2011 and “through this process, consideration was given to any newly emerging priority contracts and schemes submitted by local authorities for addition to the programme. No proposal for the Doolin Sewerage Scheme was received from Clare County Council in response to the review.
“It is a matter for Clare County Council to submit to the department any proposals relating to the Doolin Sewerage Scheme for approval,” it concluded.
Anne Haugh, director of services in the Transportation, Water Services, and Environment Directorate of Clare County Council, told Councillor Nagle by letter that “the decision in 2011 not to resubmit Doolin Sewerage Scheme as part of the review was based entirely on the fact that it did not accord with the revised criteria for inclusion on the WSIP as determined by the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government (DECLG) and on which basis the scheme had already been excluded from the 2010-2012 WSIP by the DECLG. Clare County Council is not aware of any changes to the programme priorities either at that time or since which would revise the scheme’s eligibility for inclusion.”
Councillor Joe Arkins summed up the situation saying, “The department said that the reason this was not done was because Clare County Council had not applied but Clare County Council were in essence precluded from submitting the scheme” for funding under the WSIP.
Councillor Nagle expressed his disappointment at the content of letters from the department.
“It is extremely regrettable that we have this game of ducks and drakes being played where we are getting civil service jargon in letters saying one thing in one paragraph and something else in another,” he commented.
Despite letters from the department, “still no one knows whether it can or cannot be included,” Councillor Nagle added.
The North Clare electoral area representatives now hope to meet the minister in the coming weeks to find out whether or not the project is eligible for funding under existing programmes.