Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I remember the debate on this although I was not centrally involved. There were many Deputies in the House who opposed the inspection process, although I am not saying Deputy Wallace did. The plan is in place and it predates my term of office, but I now have responsibility for it. There is an agreed plan in place for the period 2015 to 2017. As part of that, we will be reviewing in 2016 how it will work from the following year onwards. I am certainly committed to this analysis.

The 1,000 inspections resulted in no issues in approximately half the cases. Of the 500 odd with issues, half had only sludging issues or small issues. The remainder have some work to be done. These are rough figures.

There is a plan in place for the period 2015 to 2017 and it is evidence based. With regard to considering changes, I agree with the Deputy regarding self-referrals to local authorities from 2017. Local authorities can inspect more tanks than the designated minimum.

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