This article is from page 2 of the 2007-10-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
THE viability of new sewerage schemes in Doolin and Spanish Point, as well as upgrades to schemes in Ennistymon, Miltown, Liscannor, Ballyvaughan and Corofin, has been cast in serious doubt following rev- elations of a €23 million shortfall in funding for the projects.
Some €16 million in Government funding for the schemes was an- nounced by Minister for State, Tony Killeen (FF) last month, but it has subsequently emerged that this will cover less than half of the total ex- penditure required.
In the case of Doolin, €652,000 has
been earmarked for a new sewage system leaving a shortfall of almost €5.5 million which must be raised by the local people for the project to go ahead.
“For whatever reason, Munister Killeen decided to give the money allocated but did not mention the total cost of the projects or the huge shortfall that will have to be made up while announcing the story to the media,’ said Cllr Martin Lafferty (Ind).
“It is quite obvious that the whole picture was not shown for whatever reason. It totally misrepresented the situation and caused great confusion for the people of Doolin.
“This prompted members of the Doolin Action Group to write to all the public representatives seeking some sort of clarification on the mat- ter.
“It 1s almost impossible to think how we will we able to make up this shortfall. I don’t think that the fund- ing will be lost, but there is no way that we will be able to make up a shortfall of €23 million for these projects. No way.”
Clare County Council has written to the Department of Environment, Heritage and local Government ask- ing for more funding to be made available for the sewerage systems.
Meanwhile, Cllr Lafferty has also
accused the Government of using county councils as scapegoats as part of a process to introduce water charges by stealth.
“Essentially, they are telling us down here in Clare that we have to bring in water metres.
‘These metres will cost €4.25 mil- lion to introduce and they have given Clare County Council no means of doing this,” he told