This article is from page 9 of the 2006-09-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 9 JPG
CONCERNS have been expressed that the revised Scariff Feakle Quilty Mullagh Sewerage Scheme may not be servicing an area as wide as originally hoped.
Junior Marine Minister John Browne was in Mullagh this week to announce the granting of the foreshore licence for the scheme.
But it has since emerged that the original proposal has been substantially reduced to meet with the Government’s strict water pricing policy.
Clare General Election Candidate, Cllr Madeleine Taylor- Quinn (FG), expressed her concern about what she described as the €3.2 million shortfall to make up the €12 million scheme.
She said the council was planning to gather €700,000 from the people of the area. This will cost each household €1,500 each.
The former TD said she was particularly concerned about current households outside the revised scheme who will not be able to avail of the scheme.
She is now calling on the Minister for the Environment to increase the €8.8 million he granted last week, and has asked the Minister responsible for Rural Affairs, Éamon Ó Cuív, to provide some funding for the scheme.
The disappointed chairman of PlanClare, Ciarán O’Dea, said, “We got no indication that the scheme was to be rationalised.
“The contract documents are yet to be approved after a twoyear waiting period, and we remain unsure as to the design and extent of the network which has been specified by the Department of the Environment.
“It now appears that the design approved in the preliminary report is not the design which will be constructed under the cost/ benefit stipulations of the pricing policy,” he said.
“The Government’s pricing policy is being used as a tool to copperfasten the national spatial strategy by hindering necessary rural infrastructural development.
“The tone and application of this policy begrudgingly acknowledges rural communities while justifying a withdrawal of infrastructural investment from communities outside of the larger urban centres.
“If rural communities are to prosper, it is now necessary to adopt a principle of ‘investment’ in rural communities, as opposed to an application of current ‘value for money’,” he added.
Clare Minister of State Tony Killeen said he was glad that the visit of junior Minister John Browne had “effectively hastened the delivery of the foreshore licence”.
“I regret that the long delays and other elements in the saga did damage in the eyes of the public in their belief in the public sector’s capacity to deal with the project and also that credibility of the political system,” he said.