Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join wholeheartedly in the tributes to Jody Blake. I thank her for her professionalism and courtesy to all of us over the years. Present company excepted, it is sometimes the fate of politicians around here to be forgotten but not gone. The opposite will be the case with Jody. Certainly, she will not be forgotten and we hope to see her as much as possible. I wish her good health and happiness in the many years ahead. She became the temporary custodian of a book that was destined for me about the Camino de Santiago de Compostela some years ago.

I hope she has an opportunity to explore the delights of that walk at some point. In the meantime, there is a large 15 county constituency of Midlands-North-West, which has some great walking. If she has any interest in walking around with me in the coming weeks, I would be delighted and honoured to have her by my side.

At some point, it would be good to hear from the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, about the operation of the local authority septic tank inspection regime, which is a function of the Environmental Protection Agency. The deadline for registration was February 2013. Now that the inspection regime has commenced and many septic tanks are failing the inspection, I have received a number of queries from people who missed the deadline and are concerned they may not qualify for the means-tested grant aid. Given that a significant number of people missed the deadline, is it possible to extend an amnesty to them? Many people have crippling financial commitments and face the burden of debt and worries as to how they will meet mortgage payments as new taxes accumulate. Such persons do not wish to incur expenses of several thousand euro for the remediation of their septic tank facilities. We should also recall that local authorities were glad to approve planning applications for once-off housing as they could avail of the development charges associated with such houses. As a large amount of money has been raised through the septic tank registration system, it would be only just to extend the amnesty, should that be needed, to prevent people from being deprived of a grant in cases where they need to repair septic tank systems. Perhaps the Minister will update the House on the number of inspections that have taken place, the failure rate of such inspections, the average cost for people to adjust and fix their septic tank facilities and whether it would be possible to provide an amnesty to those who missed the first 2013 deadline.