Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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90. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of domestic septic tanks nationally; the number of inspections of domestic septic tanks; the take-up of grant aid for treatment systems in the high-status objective catchment area scheme; the rate of take-up of grant aid for treatment systems in prioritised areas for action; and the rate of take-up of grant aid for domestic wastewater treatment systems in houses selected under the EPA’s national inspection plan, broken down by local authority over the past five years, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49037/23]

Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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I raise the glamorous subject of septic tanks or domestic private wastewater treatment plants, as they are properly known. My Green Party colleague, Deputy Ó Cathasaigh recently raised some important questions at the Committee of Public Accounts about rates of inspection of septic tanks. Will the Minister of State outline the number of septic tanks there are nationally, the number of inspections of septic tanks that are carried out, the take-up of grant aid for treatment systems in the high status objective catchment areas and in prioritised areas for action schemes? We need to raise public awareness of the available grants and the health implications of a poorly performing system.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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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.

Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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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.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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Again, I wholeheartedly agree about a public awareness campaign. Perhaps a lack of public awareness has led to the previous low uptake. A circular will be sent by the Department next week and a question and answer section on the schemes will be available on the Department's website. The Deputy is correct. We will lead off on a new cycle of the river basin management plan early next year, which will be ambitious. It is important that it is. We know from the most recent EPA report that we have a significant problem as regards water quality. As I said, I will furnish the information in tabular form to the Deputy in which it can be seen that the uptake of the grants is inconsistent across the country. There seems to be a high uptake in the north west but the problems are universal, depending on ground types. It has a significant impact on water quality and, as the Deputy said, climate change is impacting negatively on this as well.

Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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I am aware that in rural areas there is no choice but to have a septic tank and it is important that we assist people as much as possible to fix those tanks. However, another situation has arisen that I have raised with the Department and the Minister previously. We have urban areas that were once rural. A town has grown and enveloped what was once a rural area. We have houses in my town, Bray, and I am sure in many towns in the constituencies of other Deputies, which are still on septic tanks, although there is a mains network nearby. It is expensive for householders to pay for the infrastructure to be brought to the house. They do not have any problem with paying the connection fee, like everyone else, but the infrastructure can be quite large. I hope the Minister of State will take the matter back to consider whether there is a scheme under which we could help people whose houses that were once rural - they were out in the countryside but the town has grown - to connect to the mains system which may now be close to their homes.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The Deputy made a valid point about urban areas that have grown into rural areas where there are one-off houses that now need to be connected. It is a priority for Uisce Éireann. The Minister will announce a new scheme next week for villages to upgrade systems. That is vital. We often hear from Deputies in the House about areas, particularly rural areas, where there are challenges around wastewater treatment. It is a priority for the Government in respect of funding Uisce Éireann and the work it has to carry out.

Separately, it is important to look at innovation around integrated construction, wetlands and other innovations that could be used in clustered housing in rural areas that might address issues in water quality. The Government is determined to look at it and to try to address. It is critical to try to address these issues when the grant schemes are brought forward. It is important that householders avail of the grants and the public awareness campaign will be important. The uptake of the grant is important. This matter is affecting human health, water quality and the receiving environment.