A €50M NATIONWIDE SCHEME is to be launched on Thursday morning to provide sewage mains in rural villages.
Over a third of towns and villages in Co Clare are without adequate wastewater treatment. The consequence of this in the upcoming County Development Plan is that they will be dezoned for future housing developments greatly hindering the future growth of certain areas.
At a Fianna Fáil parliamentary meeting on Wednesday evening, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien (FF) informed party colleagues that he is to launch the scheme for essential sewage infrastructure for rural villages and in his contribution he singled out Broadford as a community that would be eligible to apply for the scheme.
Clare TD, Cathal Crowe (FF) told The Clare Echo that the scheme would serve as “a vital funding mechanism”. He said the provision of sewerage infrastructure was one of his “major election pledges” and the allocation of funding was something fought for when entering a Government coalition in 2020.
Deputy Crowe stated “Broadford, in East Clare is likely to be the first beneficiary of this funding but I will also be continuing my fight for similar infrastructure to now be advanced for Cooraclare, Carrigaholt and Doolin”.
He continued, “In the case of Broadford, a sewage scheme has been talked about for the past 40 years. Lands were acquired about 18 years ago, design phases have all been completed and the project is now fully shovel ready. The situations in Cooraclare, Carrigaholt and Doolin are very similar. They have had far too many false dawns and the lack of modern sewage infrastructure has stifled village growth. In this day and age, it’s unforgivable that untreated sewage can still be allowed to trickle, as effluent, into local water sources”.
Senator Timmy Dooley (FF) referenced Broadford, Carrigaholt, Cooraclare and Doolin as locations that may be able to resolve their sewage problems as a result of the scheme. “I’m hopeful that this will become multi-annual funding and will resolve the problems in our villages over a number of years,” he stated.
