Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

The point I am making is certainly relevant to these provisions. They relate to the gathering of information which will, as the Minister said, inform the authorities on how the national plan should be targeted. My point is that the people from whom we are seeking this information are the wrong people. The river basin management plan revealed that the main polluters are local authorities. I accept there is an issue in regard to septic tanks that are proximate to water courses. That problem must be addressed. However, I would argue that, at a guess, one third of people with septic tanks are within those catchment risk areas while the other two thirds are not. However, we are bringing all of them into a bureaucratic system which will have significant costs for the State and for the individuals concerned in respect of inspections and probably issues of non-compliance-----