Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)

I support amendment No. 2. I ask the Minister to ensure that the commencement date is not imposed before the regulations are published and agreed and discussed in the House, as stated by Deputy Ó Cuív.

One of the strange aspects of the debate on the Water Services (Amendment) Bill has been the lack of any real clarity as to the regulations. The Minister has been a little misleading as he had stated previously in the Chamber that people would only have to comply with the regulations in force at the time a house was built. This means that anything built in 1970 would only have to comply with the 1970 regulations. To my mind this creates an administrative nightmare in the regulation of septic tanks as neighbouring houses could be judged on completely different standards. It is generally believed that the regulations will more than likely be very close to the 2009 standards when finally adopted by the EPA. This will place very onerous conditions on people and cause difficulties in compliance, as outlined by Deputy Stanley. The size of site required to comply with the 2009 standards is 0.6 of an acre whereas most people's houses would only be on half an acre. This would leave them in great difficulty in compliance. The regulations must take into account the smaller sites and people would not have the room to construct new percolation areas to meet those very onerous standards. A certain number of houses have been built in the recent past which comply with the 2009 standards and yet a lower standard may be chosen by the Minister. It is very difficult to debate this issue when we do not know what the standard will be. I urge the Minister to accept the amendment to ensure the standards are in place and have been debated in the House before the commencement of the legislation so that even at this late stage, we will be given some certainty as to the necessary compliance.

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