Caít Keane (Fine Gael)

The appeals process is mentioned in the Bill in section 70H(7)(b). A €200 fee is payable by a household when appealing an advisory notice. I know the Minister mentioned in his speech that it would be under that amount, but I suggest that he take a zero off the €200 and apply a fee of €20 to this section. I ask the Minister to make a statement on this. A fee of €200 is way off the mark. We know we have a significant problem, but we know also that a great many septic tanks will have to be repaired. There are people who may not be able to afford anything, and in the interest of saving the environment versus penalising a person who cannot afford to pay, I ask the Minister to look at a system of grant aid in cases of hardship or other such cases where one house is causing pollution in a ground water system. When one considers that urban dwellers have a subsidy for the sewerage system, in the interests of equality would the Minister reconsider a system for those in the country? There is a system for new houses, but that is not the system that will be implemented for existing septic tanks. I ask the Minister to reconsider and see if he can do anything for those with existing septic tanks.

I highlight the importance of the regulation. We all agree that the risk factors posed to the health of humans and animals is not one we can afford to take. We could do a great deal with the €9 million per annum to upgrade our systems throughout the country rather than pay that money in fines, as is being proposed by the Senator.

We have to look at the current banking crisis to see where regulation went down the Swanee.