Rural communities relying on group water schemes, many of which are seriously polluted, may now be able to avail of extra State funding for a running water supply.
The Minister of State for Rural Development, Mr Éamon Ó Cuív, has indicated he intends to initiate a new scheme with the Department of the Environment within the next week.
The scheme will apply to the 16 areas designated under the Clár rural regeneration scheme, which was introduced by the Minister of State last year. Under the existing provisions, grants of up to €6,400 (£5,100) are available for providing running water, but the actual cost of the work can amount to €11,000 (£9,000) per house in isolated areas.
Water quality reports by the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) have consistently found group water schemes to be the most seriously contaminated.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, said last September that he intended to set up a new water services authority under legislation which would involve licensing group water schemes - or closing them down if they failed to match EU standards.
Many small communities have found that an alternative to group water schemes is out of their financial grasp, according to Mr Ó Cuív. The plan will be run under local authority guidelines, and will run in tanden with National Development Plan improvements. The target date for completion is 2005.
Mr Ó Cuív believes the Clár programme will attract investment to areas of population decline, and has rejected criticism of the Government's efforts in relation to its commitment to the western region.
Last week, the Taoiseach turned down an appeal by the Western Development Commission for €800 million in funding over and above the National Development Plan to arrest the growing east-west divide.
The Western Development Commission has appealed to the Government to "rethink" its position. The chairman, Mr Sean Tighe, said that the economic gap between the west and the rest of the State was not going to be narrowed - and would "probably widen in the short to medium term".
Fine Gael has criticised the Taoiseach's stance. "The refusal of the Taoiseach to provide extra funding for the development of the west requested by Western Development Commission is confirmation of the apartheid that is being practised by his Government towards the people in the western and north-western region," Mr Gerry Reynolds, Fine Gael spokesman for western development, said in a statement.
"The excellent work that has been carried out by the Western Development Commission in highlighting the infrastructural, social and economic needs of the region has been ignored by the FF/PD Government," Mr Reynolds added.
"The many reports published by the commission over the last number of years have shown that the western region lags far behind other regions of the country with regard the provision of jobs, education, medical facilities and the total lack of a sustained infrastructural development. The Government has been given the blueprint over a year ago by the Western Development Commission's report, State of the West, outlining what is necessary," he said.
The Government had "failed miserably to show the political will and commitment over the last five years to provide the necessary funding which is urgently required for development", he added.