Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)

-----€1,270. The class A fines proposed under the Minister's legislation amount to €5,000. Cavan County Council is controlled by the Minister's colleagues, councillors from Fine Gael, and they are proposing to increase the fines to class C fines, or €2,500. There is a big difference between €1,270 and €5,000, as is proposed in this legislation. Using fines is the wrong way to go and the Minister is not encouraging people to protect the environment. There are 475,000 septic tanks in the country and the people who own them have an excellent appreciation of the protection of the environment. Many of those people are farmers or farm families, involved in REPS or agri-environment options schemes. They are involved in farm water conservation and rain water harvesting.