The Irish government has allocated €23 million for investment in rural water services in 2019, an increase of €3 million on the 2018 spend. A total of €75 million has been committed up to 2021.
The programme has been reviewed and a new grant scheme established which encourages rural communities to connect to the public drinking water and waste water network.
In Ireland some 9% of the population have their drinking water supplied by group water schemes. A further 10% of people get their drinking water from private wells.
Nearly 30% of households are not connected to public wastewater services and depend on either a septic tank, group wastewater treatment or other systems for treating their waste water.