Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

Section 69 enables a water services authority to declare that a particular drain shall in future be regarded as a sewer under its control. This amendment substitutes subsection (2) with a revised provision restricting its operation to applying only for the purposes of section 63. The revised provision also stipulates that the drain will be regarded as a sewer under the control of a water services authority for the purpose of applying the licensing requirements of section 63 only and for no other purpose.

The current wording is based on a similar provision in section 16 of the Local Government (Water Pollution) Act 1977, which is being consolidated in this Bill. However, while reference to "the purposes of this Act" in the 1977 Act was, in effect, confined to monitoring or licensing of discharges from affected drains, the scope of the Water Services Bill 2003 is significantly wider. For example, as currently worded, subsection (2) would enable a water services authority to exercise its general property acquisition powers under the Bill to take over a designated pipe completely. Such an infringement of private property rights would not be appropriate without an associated provision for third party appeals. Provisions to this effect are included under section 43, as amended.

The purpose of the provision in the first instance, under both the 1977 Act and this Bill, is to enable a drain to be declared a water services authority sewer so that, in turn, any person discharging trade effluent into it would be required to obtain a discharge licence under section 63. Insertion of a reference to section 63 rather than the Act as a whole will ensure that provision for this purpose is explicitly made.

Amendment No. 140 is a technical amendment, arising from amendment No. 134.