This article is from page 24 of the 2011-01-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 24 JPG
TWO Fianna Fáil councillors yesterday blamed the former Minister for the Environment and Green Party leader, John Gormley, for the failure of many rural sewage schemes in Clare to gain funded over the past two year.
Commenting on a motion in relation to the Miltown Malbay wastewater treatment plant put forward by Cllr Michael Hillary (FF) at yesterday’s North Clare Area Meeting, Cllr Richard Nagle and Michael Kelly claimed that a combination of red-tape and a bias in favour of Dublin projects, resulted in a number of Clare projects not going ahead over the past few years.
“I would hope that when we have a new Minister for the Environment, that the first thing that is done is to simplify the process of applying for a treatment plant,” said Cllr Nagle.
“Over the last number of years the system has been so bureaucratic that we did not do very well in the number of projects which got funding. It seems that the priority was given to larger development in places in the surrounds of Dublin. We were definitely the poor relation. The last thing that we need is that there remains so much bureaucracy that it continues to bogs down the whole process.”
According to Cllr Michael Kelly, the proposed redevelopment of the Miltown Malbay sewage system and a number of other projects would have received funding had it not been from red-tape from the Department of the Environment.
“We are now in the unhappy situation where sewerage systems would have been put through by now had it not been for the bureaucracy of the Department of the Environment,” he said.
“This was not the fault of Clare County County, it was a bureaucracy land mine,” Cllr Kelly concluded.
This debate was sparked off by a motion from Cllr Michael Hillery, who is worried that the Miltown Malbay wastewater treatment system will not be granted an EPA licence for 2011.
“We have been looking for a proper sewerage system in Miltown Malbay for many years but with the financial situation at the moment that wont be happening for awhile. However, the system in Miltown does need to be upgraded if it is to get a EPA licence,” said Cllr Hillery.
“The sewerage system there was built in the 1940’s and is not suitable to deal with the increase in population which has taken place over the last few years.”