Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

Arising from the good decisions and progress made with the European Commission, which was very different to what was proposed by Fianna Fáil and the Green Party when in government, I was in position not to have universal inspection of septic tanks or compliance with a 2009 Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, code of practice. Instead, I was able to get a risk-based approach and a solution based on the Cavan model. Accordingly, we will not need as much money to administer the system as my predecessors would have made sure of taking from rural householders. The registration was important. I decided, however, it was not necessary to take €17 million from rural householders. All that is required for this particular scheme is €3 million to €4 million.

The risk-based approach, along with the sensible and pragmatic measures we got agreement on with the European Commission, flies in the face of what was proposed in the past by my predecessors. I am delighted with that result. We will ensure a pragmatic approach is taken and we have outlined in the standards how this will happen. The pragmatic approach and the agreement from the European Commission have come as a big surprise to some people.

As I stated in the reply, if grant assistance is required for remediation arising from an inspection, then we will consider it.

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