Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

This amendment replaces and expands the scope of the original section 70(9). The original provision enables the Minister to make regulations to prohibit or restrict the discharge of specified effluent to a sewer. The revised provision, in addition to enabling regulations to be made to prohibit or restrict the discharge of specified effluent to a sewer, will also enable regulations to specify measures to be taken before the discharge of effluent and enable such regulations to apply also to discharges to a drain, service connection or waste water works. Such regulations may be used, for example, to specify requirements regarding the installation of grease traps in food preparation outlets to reduce the load at the treatment works or prevent disruption to the waster water treatment process. Enabling the regulations to apply to discharges to a drain, service connection or waste water works is intended to avoid any problem regarding at what point in the discharge route the specific requirement may have to be undertaken. The amendment ties in with the revised definition of "drain" and "service connection" agreed earlier in section 2.