Donegal Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty has blamed Government inaction for the delay in the Goath Dobhair Sewerage Scheme.
Pearse Doherty
He was speaking today in relation to correspondence received by Irish Water stating the scheme will not commence under the current Capital Investment Programme for 2014 – 2016.
He revealed he received correspondence from Irish Water last month which confirmed it is not listed as a scheme to start construction under the lifetime of the current capital investment programme and the earliest date to start construction on the project would be 2017.
“After I then pressed officials in Irish Water as to the timeframe for the scheme to start construction after 2017 it emerged that a timeframe could not be provided as the planning and business case for the scheme would have to be reviewed, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of euros have been spent on the scheme to date.
“This is despite the fact that the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government visited Gweedore in November of last year and assured the people of Gweedore that the €13 million required for the project had been secured and that he would be asking officials in his Department to expediate the approval for the contract documents for the scheme which had been submitted.
“However, it emerged that the approval for the scheme was not granted until December 2013 which allowed this scheme to come under the control of Irish Water without any contracts being signed.
“It is clear that the inaction of the Government to approve the contract in a timely fashion has resulted in an indefinite delay to this project which is a slap in the face for the people of Gweedore who have been waiting for this scheme for over 50 years.
“I have tabled questions to the Minister on this issue in order to demand answers as it appears that this was a blatant attempt by government to hoodwink the people of gweedore into believing this scheme was about to progress while the Government were preparing to wash its hands of the project and hand it over to the unaccountable Irish Water.”
Tags: