John Whelan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

To get back to matters more at home, I draw to the attention of the House that the interim closing date for the registration of septic tanks is one week away on 28 September. To be fair to the Minister and the Department of the Environment, Culture and Local Government, it is a relatively modest ¤5. Colleagues will be aware that due to the deluges we had and the poor weather during the summer months industrial-scale treatment plants in Cork and Clare were overwhelmed and malfunctioned to the extent that some of our best known beaches in Cork and Clare had to be closed due to pollution and the proliferation of E. coli. Therefore, it follows that if there are 480,000 tanks throughout the country there is no doubt that on a local level many of these tanks would have malfunctioned, would have been overwhelmed and would have flooded.