John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

The water framework directive requires member states to achieve at least good status of waters by 2015 and to prevent the deterioration of the status of all bodies of water, including rivers, lakes, ground water, estuaries and coastal waters.

These objectives will be achieved through river basin management plans which are required to be prepared under the directive. Draft river basin management plans are due to be published in 2008 and adopted by the end of 2009. Each plan will be accompanied by a programme of measures aimed at achieving the environmental objectives set out in the directive. The objectives of the directive relate to the protection of ground water and require specific measures to be taken to prevent or limit the input of pollutants to ground water. The programme of measures must be made operational by 2012 at the latest, with the aim of achieving the environmental objectives by 2015.

Where measures already taken have not fully met the objectives of the water framework directive, or fall short of achieving the good status objective for waters by 2015, additional measures will need to be developed at river basin management level.

The regulations which transpose the water framework directive into national law assign the responsibility of making river basin management plans to the constituent local authorities of each of the river basin districts. This work is led by a co-ordinating local authority in each river basin district.

My Department will shortly issue guidance on the preparation of river basin management plans. The guidance will, inter alia, set out the steps that must be taken by public authorities involved in the river basin management planning to align the objectives of other plans and programmes, for example, regional planning guidelines, county development plans and so forth, with the objectives and goals of the water framework directive and to promote the co-ordinated implementation of the directive across river basin districts.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

With regard to septic tanks, the EPA is currently finalising a revised edition of its code of practice on waste water treatment systems serving single homes. This will refer to the most up-to-date European standards and I understand that the National Standards Authority of Ireland will replace its existing 1991 standard applying to septic tanks with the EPA code. More generally, since the adoption of the water framework directive, successive water services investment programmes have taken account of its requirements in the prioritisation of schemes to protect and improve water quality and this emphasis will be maintained in future years.

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