Long-awaited sewerage schemes finally delivered for Broadford and Cooraclare
- Minister O’Brien has confirmed funding for vital schemes
- Both villages waiting decades for news
Fianna Fáil TD for Clare Cathal Crowe has welcomed news that the long-awaited sewerage schemes for the villages of Broadford and Cooraclare have been confirmed.
Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh O’Brien has confirmed this morning a €50 million rural wastewater collection and treatment scheme and has confirmed the inclusion of both Broadford and Cooraclare in the same.
“I am so pleased today to finally have received confirmation on the long-awaited sewerage schemes for these two villages,” said Deputy Crowe.
“When Fianna Fáil entered government in 2020, I was asked by party leadership what issues I wanted to see included in the Programme for Government.
“I said that the provision of rural sewerage schemes would be a redline issue for me and I am delighted that I have been able to pursue this issue in government and now secure the necessary funding from Minister Darragh O’Brien.
“Both villages have waited many decades for such infrastructure and local action groups in both areas have been frustrated at the length of time it took to achieve this.
“Rural villages have long been a priority of mine, as without a sewerage scheme, these villages can’t grow, housing cannot be provided and there’s also the ongoing environmental hazard of raw sewerage being discharged into drains and watercourses that has the potential of contaminating drinking waters.
“It’s regrettable that politicians and governments that served Co. Clare over the years didn’t deliver on this scheme heretofore.
“However, Minister O’Brien has been very proactively engaging with me on this issue and visited Broadford back in summer 2021 to see for himself how needed a scheme like this is.
“In recent weeks, he gave notice to Oireachtas representatives that he would be imminently signing off on the scheme – so I’ve been over and back in trying to pin down a date since then.
“I will be pushing to have this pilot scheme now made a multi-annual scheme – there are more villages in Clare that will need this level of investment.
“I want to also pay tribute to the Broadford Action Group led by PJ Mason and Cllr Bill Chambers and the late Brendan Daly in Cooraclare who have fought doggedly for this day – as well as the other elected representatives.”
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