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

I thank the Minister of State and appreciate him standing in on behalf of the Department of housing. It is somewhat disappointing a Minister was not available to take the question but I am sure the officials will relay my dismay and frustration with this grant scheme. The reality is that in the case of County Longford only a small number of inspections, possibly three, are carried out over the course of the year, so it is virtually impossible to access this grant in Longford. I am familiar with one elderly lady who accessed the grant last year and her quandary is that she does not have the €12,000 to pay in advance before she can get those works carried out.

This is a major environmental challenge for us in rural Ireland. We are hammering farmers on the nitrates issue. We are blaming farmers for the impact on water quality right across Ireland and making it a major issue for the farming community. Yet we have 500,000 septic tanks in every county, parish and area across rural Ireland, many of which are defective, and for a payment in the region of €12,000 to €15,000, in most instances, we can put these septic tanks right. If we are serious about the environment, and we have made it a pillar of this Government that are serious about the environment, we need to make a strategic decision and act now on septic tanks. It is an investment in the future. It is a small price to pay. This year, it looks like we will spend less than €500,000 on the septic tanks grant. It is an indictment of us as a Government, it is an indictment on our commitment to the environment and it is an indictment on how we treat people in rural Ireland.

A young lady came to me a number of months ago and she was trying to access the septic tank grant. She is a hard-working young woman who works as a vet. She has never turned to the Government or to society for anything at any stage in her life. She thought she could access this grant but was told no and that she would not even be selected for an inspection. It is truly disheartening for people in rural Ireland to be treated like this when it comes to septic tanks. I urge my colleagues in government to join me in trying to seek a reversal of the current guidelines for this scheme.

See this speech in context