Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I fully support the legislation, which is an attempt to solve an existing problem. It was said earlier that the Minister has proposed we should wait until the end of next year to pass Second Stage. However, if the Bill passes Second Stage on Thursday, by the time it gets through Committee Stage and Report Stage in the Dáil and then goes to the Seanad, it will be well past the end of next year before it becomes law. The Minister knows that is the reality. It will not make any difference, therefore, to delay it. The Government should go ahead and do what it is doing and this Bill will progress through the system. If what the Government is doing sorts out the problem, this Bill can fall at any stage without any problem. However, the proposal to defer the Bill until the end of next year does not stand up. Nothing will be done between now and then to deal with this situation, as the Minister and everybody in the House knows. The Minister is just waffling to get the Government over the hump of this debate.

In supporting the Bill, some Members have said that rural Ireland does not cause any problems, or if it does, they are much smaller than those caused by urban areas, but that misses the point. All effluent causes problems and it all has to be dealt with. The fact it is not being dealt with somewhere else does not mean I should fail to deal with my effluent. This makes no sense. There has to be a system that allows people in rural Ireland to build and maintain their own systems. It would be far better if the construction of septic tanks was inspected after they were completed but nothing like this happens. The only time a septic tank is looked at is during the planning application stage of the development, which is the only time the planners and environmental health officials get any say in what happens. A completion certificate is signed off at the end, and everybody says it is grand. However, there is no expectation when a septic tank is built that there should be compliance or that the householder should be sure the contractor has done a proper job. We would be better off with the system that applies in the Six Counties, where there are three inspections, namely, inspection of the foundations, inspection of the roof and inspection of the septic tank when the building is complete. That would ensure septic tanks and treatment systems are compatible and that the effluent system is in working order. It should be part of the planning requirements prior to allowing the development to go ahead.

It was suggested it was an unintended consequence that had stopped development in County Leitrim but that is not the case. I believe the intention is to stop rural development. From the Government's point of view, if it can stop people living in rural areas, they will live in towns and everything will be solved. If the Government is serious about this, it should make land available in towns and villages for people to build on, and not give it to the private sector, which is what it normally does. For example, if somebody in a town or village catchment area wants to build on his or her own land, he or she should be given land within the town or village as an alternative. This would make the town or village viable and it would also keep people in the rural area they belong to, and give them belief and ownership. It makes total sense. This would also allow for the combining of treatment systems with other systems so that everything works, in addition to maintaining rural areas.

We have to do something. We would all like people to live on their own townland, next door to their parents and so on. However, one reason people do that is because they cannot afford anything else. Nothing we have done in this House has worked to make that happen for them. We should introduce a system that makes it happen. Until that is done in this House, and we will be a long time waiting, Deputy Martin Kenny's legislation is the correct way to proceed. We have to facilitate people to live in the rural areas they come from. For that reason, we should support this legislation and pass it through the Houses. If the Government wants to propose changes, it can work away on that. By the time this legislation goes through all the routine it has to go through to become law, the Government's system would be in place and there would be no need for the Bill.

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