Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

If I agreed to accept these amendments, they would place an unreasonable obligation on the owner of a premises to ensure that the actions of a tenant conformed with the requirements under the section to avoid risk to human health and the environment from waste water discharges. It is appropriate that the liability for breach of a duty of care be placed on the perpetrator of that action rather than a third party. It would be unfair on a landlord to hold him or her responsible where, for example, a tenant discharges a noxious substance into a sewer which causes a risk to human health. Clearly, in such an instance where he or she has perpetrated the misdemeanour, the tenant should be held liable for those actions. To provide otherwise would place a landlord in an invidious position and leave him or her open to the abuse of such a provision by a tenant in the event of a tenancy dispute. The deterrent value of the Bill would be greatly reduced if the person responsible for causing the breach of a duty of care were not directly liable for his or her actions, and the duty of care provisions under section 70 would be rendered less effective as a result.

As currently worded, the duties of care under section 70 regarding waste water discharges from a premises apply to the occupiers of that premises, regardless of whether they know it. To cover all situations, such duties of care extend to the owner in all instances where a premises is unoccupied. It is not considered appropriate to compromise those clear lines of responsibility by placing obligations on owners which might be difficult to enforce owing to landlord-tenant issues or because of difficulty with access. The current wording offers the most direct means of enforcement and therefore the most direct means of ensuring that human health and the environment are adequately protected.