Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir. As the Senator will be aware, the Department provides funding for water services in rural Ireland where no Uisce Éireann services are available. The Department's multi-annual rural water programme uses Exchequer funding to deliver improvements to water services in rural Ireland. As part of the funding provided, the Department currently has three separate grant schemes available to households for domestic wastewater treatment systems, known as septic tanks. These grants schemes are administered on behalf of the Department by local authorities. The purpose of the grants is to provide financial help to households for work to septic tanks to protect human health and the environment and to help Ireland meet its commitments under the river basin management plan.

As the Senator is aware, under the water services legislation and regulations, the owner of a domestic wastewater treatment system is responsible for ensuring that it is fit for purpose, including its maintenance and repair, to prevent a risk to human health and the environment. All these grants are focused on the areas of greatest environmental priority and are not general in application. In consultation with key stakeholders, the Department has recently completed a review of the three grant schemes.The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, listened to the views of the sector and significant improvements have been made to the terms and conditions and to the funding available. For each grant, the maximum amount available has been increased from €5,000 to €12,000 and the qualifying condition that the septic tank must have been registered with the local authority before 1 February 2013 has been removed. I understand that the Minister has no plans to make any further changes to the grant at this time.