John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

The Deputy's colleague, Deputy Ciarán Lynch, referred to the appearance of the industry representatives before the committee earlier. It sounded like an interesting submission and I will obtain a transcript to establish the points they made to the committee.

The Deputy is absolutely correct that we have a serious problem in regard to septic tanks, to which I referred earlier. I also referred to the European Commission's finding. The Water Services Act 2007 contains a number of significant provisions relating to the operation of septic tanks and it places a duty of care on the occupier or owner of a premises in regard to the maintenance of such tanks and it also requires him or her to notify the water services authority where any leak, accident or other incident occurs relating to the discharge of sewage from a septic tank where it is likely to cause a risk to human health or safety or the environment.

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