Local authorities get extra funding

Local authorities are to receive an additional €20.5 million to assist them with running costs on their water and sewerage treatment plants, Minister for the Environment John Gormley announced today.

The funding is to come from the Local Government Fund, which provided €1.5 million earlier this year to authorities to support training needs in the water services sector.

The Minister said that the €20.5 million was also in addition to the capital spend of €508 million available to his Department in 2010 to fund water services infrastructure.

Some €8.7 million from the €20.5 million package will directly contribute towards local authorities’ operation and maintenance costs on recently completed water and wastewater treatment plants.

The balance will be used to offset sampling costs to establish compliance with drinking water and wastewater effluent standards and the cost of licence applications to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for wastewater discharges.

“Given the ongoing economic difficulties, this continuing high level of expenditure reflects the Government’s ongoing commitment to preserving and protecting our water resources, to meeting EU standards for drinking water and wastewater treatment and to putting critical infrastructure in place that will ensure ongoing support for industrial, commercial and other development, said Mr Gormley.

Average spending on water services infrastructure over the period 2009 and 2010 will be up 3 per cent on the 2008 outturn, according to the Department of the Environment.

Separately, the EPA today issued a waste water discharge licence for the greater Dublin area at Ringsend, providing that the treatment plant is upgraded by December 2015.

The licence has been issued in accordance with the Waste Water Discharge (Authorisation) Regulations 2007 to Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council, South Dublin County Council, Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and Meath County Council.

The new licence contains more than 66 individual conditions and schedules relating to the environmental management, operation, control and monitoring of discharges to water from the greater Dublin area.

Under the licence, two secondary discharges to the Irish Sea, at Doldrum Bay and the Nose of Howth, must be discontinued.

In addition, the licensee must assess storm water overflows and submit an annual environmental report which will include a summary of emissions, monitoring data and updates on both the waste water treatment plant and storm water overflow upgrades.