Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I, too, thank the Minister of State for his response, on foot of which I have further question. In regard to the Minister's statement that the Government has approved a national strategy to deal with this issue on foot of the scale of the problem having been quantified by various Departments in conjunction with the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, will the Government publish the methodology and scientific basis of that quantification? Perhaps then we would get a indication of what level of funding the Government is providing in the coming year to deal with this issue.

In regard to the grant assistance scheme, in particular in relation to septic tanks, if a constituent comes to me and tells me that his septic tank is overflowing and that it is possibly polluting the watercourse, which, because there is an underground water source in my county, is very possible, I will inform him that a grant scheme has been introduced by Government in respect of which he must apply to the local authority. If, following application to the local authority, he is refused the grant on the basis that to qualify for it his water supply must first fail a test initiated by the local authority on foot of the Government's instruction and he then asks that that test be carried out, the authority might refuse to do so on the basis that the test is only carried out on supply drawn by lots. While there might be 5,000 registered septic tanks in the county of Offaly, only ten inspections will take place. This is akin to having to match six numbers in the lotto to have a test carried out in the first instance before being eligible to apply for the grant. Irish Water has washed its hands of this. If in the scenario outlined there is no grant available, who will pay? The public will eventually pay because Irish Water, the local authorities and the Government are not doing anything to prevent this happening. This is the result of the preparation that went into the establishment of Irish Water in the first instance, prior to which responsibility for all matters such as this lay with the local authorities. To say that things have improved is, unfortunately, not the case. I hope a great deal more thought will be put into any proposal in relation to grant aid to deal with this issue in order that it might actually do what it says on the tin.

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