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Roscommon town and Monksland are among the locations identified in the latest EPA report on urban waste water treatment as failing to effectively process effluent. Commenting on this failure, Independent MEP Marian Harkin said that it reflected a dysfunctional planning system allied to the failure of successive governments to provide adequate resources for the provision of treatment plants. “It will also mean that the Irish government will be taken to the European Court of Justice by the European Commission for its failure to rectify plants throughout the country including Roscommon town and Monksland”, she added. “Over the years the billions of euro received from the EU Cohesion Fund which were provided for investment throughout the country were instead disproportionately spent in upgrading waste water systems in major cities such as Dublin and Cork”, she claimed. A bad planning system involving up to 80 decisions before starting works, allied to failure by government to provide the necessary resources to County Councils, had created the circumstances in which sewage problems such as in Co. Roscommon existed, Marian Harkin maintained. Funds which should have been spent in the BMW region were diverted elsewhere and contributed to the lack of vital infrastructure investment in towns like Roscommon town and Monksland, she said.
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