Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I completely agree with him that we need to raise public awareness of this and of the substantial grant increase that has been introduced by the Minister. I did some research and worked out that there are probably approximately 500,000 private domestic wastewater treatment systems in operation. However, a report published by the EPA in June suggests that only 1,147 have been inspected. That is a low inspection rate given the high number of people who use wastewater treatment plants and when we consider that the urban wastewater directive sets out the standards for urban wastewater treatment systems. A total of 500,000 domestic systems do not have a high standard of testing. That has implications for groundwater, especially when considering climate change and the increase in the water table, which will also affect the operation of domestic wastewater systems. The public awareness campaign the Minister of State mentioned is of critical importance to highlight that we have increased the grant for people to take remedial action where necessary.

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