Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for asking this question on behalf of Deputy Ó Cathasaigh who has raised this issue consistently at every opportunity. On 3 November 2023, the Minister announced changes to the three grants for domestic wastewater treatment systems, commonly known as septic tanks. The changes include increasing the grant amount available from €5,000 to a maximum of €12,000, a 140% increase, and removing the registration requirement. That is welcome. These improvements will help householders to reduce the impact on human health and the environmental risk from defective treatment systems. The changes come into effect from 1 January next year.

The Central Statistics Office, CSO - not my Department - collects information on the types of wastewater treatment systems that serve households. Census 2016 recorded that there were nearly 500,000 domestic wastewater treatment systems in Ireland. More details can be accessed on the CSO website. My understanding is that there are approximately 438,000 individual septic tanks and 50,000 other individual treatment systems.

The high status objective catchment areas and prioritised areas for action grant schemes were introduced in June 2020. The uptake of these two schemes has been low with most grants to date being paid under the national inspection plan. The idea of a public awareness campaign is useful. The increased grants scheme the Minister announced last week will give the opportunity to progressively improve the situation. It is important to note that the three grants are demand led.

The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, publishes a national inspection plan on domestic wastewater treatment systems, which provides for an increase in the number of inspections to 1,200 per annum from 1,000 previously, a 20% increase, starting this year. The change will also lead to an increase in grant uptake. The current plan for 2022 to 2026 can be found on the EPA website.

The information requested in tabular form is detailed. I will, therefore, arrange for this information and the relevant website links to be sent to the Deputy separately.

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