Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. Like the previous speaker, I completely reject the assertions of Deputy Niall Collins and Eamon Ó Cuív that this is an attack on rural dwellers. This is a scheme that will help to keep rural Ireland a safe and beautiful place to live. The fact is that their party, Fianna Fáil, ignored this problem for years upon years, much as it ignored the start of the financial crisis. We do not want to find rural Ireland in the same place we have reached in regard to the financial crisis, and we do not want an environmental crisis.

We are busying clearing up their mess. What they are doing is scaremongering. I know from public meetings being organised by Fianna Fáil across County Meath that some people are scared that we are about lump huge costs on them, which is not the case. Under no circumstances is this Government targeting those people who live in rural areas for excessive costs. We want to protect rural dwellers.

I listened to Deputy Colreavy earlier. While I accept his bona fides, I do not accept this issue is similar to that of the Anglo Irish Bank bondholders. We are trying to clear up this mess and we are acting very quickly on a subject that Fianna Fáil refused to act on for decades. We are trying to make sure the concept of a green island of Ireland is still true in 20 years time.

Fianna Fáil has thrown around a figure of €300 for the registration of septic tanks. I know from public meetings and from notices that have been put around shops in County Meath that it is putting out this message. Let us be clear. The cost we are talking about for registration is approximately €50, not €300. This is the only charge people with a working tank will have to worry about, and it is not an excessive amount for the positive benefit that it will bring to local communities.

The problem of non-functioning tanks will be tackled in a phased and intelligent way. The risk-based approach by the EPA will target areas that are likely to have high incidence of environmental damage from out-of-date septic tanks. This is international best practice. The plan is being developed by the EPA and will be announced in the middle of next year.

I will not apologise for the fact we need to protect the quality of our water supplies. We have seen the pressure that is put on families when schemes in rural and urban areas are contaminated, which can mean months of buying bottled water or constantly boiling water, which is not fair on families. The purpose of the Bill is to address the issue of septic tanks that are polluting the local area. No one in local communities benefits from this pollution. All it does is to bring down the quality of life in these rural areas.

We are behind the rest of Europe when it comes to legislation. Similar legislation has been in place in Northern Ireland since 1973 and previous speakers noted it has been happening in Cavan since 2004. Neither of those places has seen a huge exodus of rural population because of septic tanks - that just does not happen and it has not happened. This scaremongering is creating an unease in rural populations that is not needed. It is cynical politics by Fianna Fáil and we can all see through it.

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