Mr. Liam Bergin, Director of Services outlined the Budget for his areas of Responsibility:

Water Services:

·         There is additional allocation of €100,000 in budget for Roscommon Leisure Centre and €150,000 included for upgrade works at Castlerea Pool.

·         In relation to the future operations with Irish Water there is a White Paper with the Minister awaiting his signature that will have an impact on the way services are delivered in 2021.

·         The revenue Budget for Water Services is based on the Service Level Agreement with Irish Water with an income of €7.5m annually

·         Capital Works to be completed in 2021-2023 and funded by Irish Water include upgrade works on the Mount Talbot water treatment plant and reservoir refurbishment at the North Roscommon water treatment plant, reservoir cleansing programmes, there is an ongoing the sewer rehabilitation programme.

·         There are ongoing programmes such as Find and Fix to drive down leakage to economic levels, First Fix programme to reduce private side leakage and non domestic meter replacement

·         The National Water Resource Programme is a public consultation that will commence later this year

·         Roscommon Town main Drainage scheme upgrade to include upgrade of the network and provision of additional pumping stations is due to commence in 2021. Improvement works are also scheduled for Ballaghaderreen WWTP but this is currently at planning stage.

·         The Multi-Annual Rural Water Programme continues and there is work ongoing to improve the private water supplies including source protection work.

Environment:

·         The aftercare of landfills is a significant burden and responsibility of the local authority to ensure that adequate expertise and resources are available in order to ensure compliance with the EPA licences. There are expected to be significant costs associated with remediation works at Roscommon and Ballaghaderreen yet to be identified.

·          An additional €167,000 had been allocated to meet increased costs in recovery and recycling facilities operations

·         €22,000 will be funded through LPT to meet costs of disposal of waste due to illegal dumping and will be supplemented through anti-dumping initiatives and litter fines.

·         A new environmental awareness officer will take up post in January of 2021

·         €15,000 will be provided in 2021 to cover a proportion of the costs associated with litter control, emptying skips and road sweeping

·         The budget for the enforcement of waste legislation and environmental education and awareness includes Roscommon’s contribution to the Connaught Ulster Regional Waste Co-ordinator’s Office.

·         The Enforcement Team execute the enforcement of a broad range of waste regulations including Waste Facility and Collection Permit Regulations, Food Waste Regulations, Waste Presentation Bye Laws, End of Life Vehicles Regulations, Packaging Regulations, WEEE Regulations, Plastic Bag Regulations, Waste Tyres Regulations, Water Pollution and Water Framework Regulations and Air Pollution regulations. It also responds to reports of illegal activities in the area of waste management.

Climate:

·         There is little in the way of direct support in the budget in relation to climate because the majority of the climate actions are going to be funded by central government – the Climate Action Fund.

·         It is intended in 2021 to make progress in relation to climate action coordinator, climate action Officer, a green solution specialist and with the environmental awareness officer appointment strengthen the biodiversity officer role to recognize the obligations we have a statutory authority.

Other:

·         The Council have been very well served by Áras an Chontae with one of the things would be looking at video conferencing facilities in this Chamber in 2021 to see what the costs and benefits will be.

·         Provision of €100,000 has been included to finance a loan of €3m to complete the upgrade of the 5,100 lights in the National Public Lights Upgrade programme.