Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Indeed. I have been living ever since with disappointment and a feeling of being unfulfilled, however, given numerous constituents have come to me and pointed out the shortcomings of the scheme. Just 19 grants have been paid out this year by the Department to householders with septic tanks and the Department is coming under increasing pressure to revise the eligibility and application process, which many people, me included, argue is too restrictive and convoluted and does not address one of the biggest challenges in rural Ireland, namely, the inadequacy and shortcomings of our septic tank network, with almost 500,000 such features in Ireland. Disappointingly, the Minister has stated he is unwilling, at least at this time, to look at making further changes to the septic tank scheme, but I am going to use this brief debate to try to impress on him the need to make those changes and to highlight the shortcomings.

Dr. Matt Crowe, the chair of the national water forum, has stated the issue needs close monitoring. He says the 19 applications constitute a very small number given the high number of septic tanks we suspect are not functioning properly. At the moment, to be eligible to apply, a home must have been preselected as part of the national inspection plan or be in a high-status objective catchment area or a priority area for action. I appreciate that the State cannot pay for everybody, but the criteria and the process have to be made much easier for people to seek out the grant. Moreover, householders, many of whom are elderly, have to pay in advance for the works and then recoup the grants, which is a further deterrent. Dr. Matt Crowe has argued it would be much more effective if the grant were opened to everyone but with payments graded in value depending on the urgency of the problem. As mentioned, there are almost 500,000 septic tanks in the country, and the EPA reported last month that 45% of inspections had failed to meet the required standard.

This is one of the biggest challenges we have in rural Ireland. People probably cannot go down a rural lane without getting the stench of a septic tank. It is an acquired skill to be able to distinguish between slurry and a septic tank, but if you live in rural Ireland, you will be familiar with the nuanced difference. It is a perplexing problem and a source of immense disappointment to us as rural TDs. If we look at our diaries to see who is coming in to meet us and we see someone scheduled to come to talk about a septic tank grant, our hearts truly sink because these are people going out of their way to do what they need to do and what is right for the environment to address a shortcoming in something. When they were granted planning 30 years ago, it made eminent sense at that time to give people septic tanks, but technology has moved on. We now have much better systems and we should be making it much easier for people to replace those septic tanks, rehabilitate them and put right the issues that are there.

At the moment, based on the current runway, we are going to pay out only about €500,000 in septic tank grants this year, which is an inadequate response to a major issue for us in rural Ireland. I hope this debate will be an opportunity to impress on the Minister and his officials in the Department the need to revisit this because it is a major issue for rural Ireland, those 500,000 homes and, specifically, the 45% of those septic tanks that are inadequate and are causing environmental concerns in rural Ireland.

See this speech in context