The south Co Galway coastal community of Kinvara says it still intends to run a candidate in the general election unless there is "tangible evidence" that the Government will provide it with a waste-water treatment plant.
"We've had too many promises before," Dr Marie Hannigan, facilitator with Cáirde Cuan Chinn Mhara, said yesterday.
She was responding to a claim by Galway East TD Joe Callanan (FF) that a sewerage scheme was going ahead.
Mr Callanan claims preliminary approval has been sanctioned by Minister for the Environment Dick Roche allowing Galway County Council to start drafting contract documents for a "build-and-operate" project.
Galway County Council submitted a design for a plant for Kinvara to the department in 2002.
Mr Callanan says the council will be able to invite tenders for work, estimated to cost €3.9 million, once the contract documents are finalised.
"It is a triumph for this community, and shows what people power can achieve.
"I wish to thank Minister Roche, who met the sewerage action group in Gort last summer. I would also like to thank the community for their patience and persistence."
However, Cáirde Cuan Chinn Mhara believes that if the plant is constructed under private contract through a "build-and-operate" scheme it will be subject to further delays.
The committee has been lobbying for adequate waste-water treatment for the village since 1997, and disbanded in 2002 on foot of a pre-election promise at that stage. It reformed in 2004 when there was no movement on the issue.
Dr Hannigan said Kinvara's development was restricted by a lack of adequate facilities yet the surrounding area's population had grown by 38 per cent in the last four years.
The village is also campaigning to retain its girls' secondary school, Seamount College, which the Mercy Order intends to close.
This has fuelled speculation that a general election candidate might stand on both issues in the Galway East constituency.
A recent study conducted by Seamount College's parents' council found that up to 700 children will require secondary education in the catchment area by 2010.
