Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 557: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the reason the building regulations state that eight units can only be connected to a 150mm drain, but local authorities are currently taking apartment blocks as being one unit, whereas they could have many more than eight units in them, as there is no clarification available under the building regulations when it comes to apartment blocks and the drainage system in Dublin in particular, and local authorities can not enforce their preferred option of 14 apartments per connection to drains; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29836/07]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Part H of the Building Regulations deals with Drainage and Waste Water Disposal. Requirement H1 (1) of the Regulations, which refers to foul drainage, states that "A building shall be provided with such a drainage system as may be necessary for the hygienic and adequate disposal of foul water from the building". The associated Technical Guidance Document TGD H gives guidance for non-complex drainage systems, including guidelines on the discharge capacity of foul drains. The minimum size of a drain serving three or more dwellings should be 150 mm and no drain should serve more than eight dwellings. The context of this guidance is traditional housing estates, where the limitation to eight dwellings is so as to ensure that a drain blockage does not affect too many dwellings.

No specific guidance is given for apartment blocks but reference is made in TGD H to BS 8301, dealing with building drainage, as a source of guidance. This document has now been superseded and guidance on the design of building drain and sewer systems is currently given in the IS EN 752 series of standards.

Implementation of the building control system is a matter for the local Building Control Authority. My Department has no function in assessing compliance, or otherwise, of specific works or developments.