John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I do not accept that. The existing standards for septic tanks are set out in the recommendations for domestic effluent treatment and disposal from single dwelling houses, published in 1991 by the NSAI. These standards are incorporated into Part H of the building regulations dealing with drainage and waste water disposal. The aim of these standards is to achieve satisfactory practice in the design, construction and maintenance of septic tank drainage systems.

The EPA is currently developing a code of practice for waste water treatment systems for single houses. This will incorporate the requirements of new European standards, due to come into force on 1 July 2009. My Department has placed local authorities on notice about the pending application of the European standards. Two circular letters have issued, which include recommended performance levels for treatment systems which have been determined by the Irish Agrément Board, the national and European-recognised body for certifying new building products or systems, for which national standards do not exist.

I intend that the EPA code of practice will replace the NSAI standard of 1991, under the building regulations. As soon as the EPA completes its work, in the coming months, I will incorporate the code of practice and replace the standard recommendations of 1991 under Part H of the building regulations dealing with drainage and waste water disposal.

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