Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply, which is the one I expected. In his response, he said that the focus is on areas of greatest environmental priority and of course that is very important but the problem is that we are only taking action when the horse bolts. Prevention is better than cure. If we have defective septic tanks and homeowners willing to improve and upgrade them, surely the Department should respond responsibly, particularly given how we are failing to improve our water quality. If homeowners want to improve their tanks and need support to do that, surely we should allow for proactive improvement of same.