Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government with respect to the recently announced grant scheme for homeowners with septic tanks, where the money for this scheme will come from; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58143/12]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the number of households who had registered their private waste water system by the 31 December 2012 broken down county; the percentage who have registered in each county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1112/13]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the decisions taken by the previous Government, which were in office up to March 2011, in relation to waste water systems on foot of the judgement in the European Court of Justice in October 2009; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1113/13]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will consider extending the registration date for waste water treatment systems to the end of April 2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1831/13]

Frank Feighan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the way the grants aid system will work from an operational perspective for both local authorities and for qualifying applicants in respect of septic tank inspections. [1851/13]

Frank Feighan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if the level of household debt will be taken into account when assessing the income thresholds for the grant scheme in respect of septic tank inspections. [1852/13]

Frank Feighan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if analysis has been carried out to establish approximate costs involved for remediation works on septic tanks. [1854/13]

Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the proportion of the more than 300,000 legacy septic tanks installed prior to 1990 his officials estimate will require upgrading and the moneys that have been set aside for the grant scheme in this years Departmental budget. [1968/13]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 638, 652, 653, 695, 710, 711, 713 and 722 together.

As of 31 December 2012, applications in respect of the on-site wastewater treatment systems of 266,151 owners, who have registered on-line, by post or in person at their local authority offices, had been processed and approximately 25,000 additional registration applications were awaiting processing by the bureau operated by the Local Government Management Agency on that date. Details of the number of processed registrations for each County and City Council by 14 January 2013 are set out in the table.

The Water Services Acts 2007 and 2012 Domestic Waste Water Treatment Systems (Registration) Regulations 2012 prescribe the date for registration of domestic wastewater treatment systems as 1 February 2013. There has been an extensive public information campaign, involving local and national media as well as the distribution of an information booklet to households in unsewered areas, to familiarise owners of domestic waste water treatment systems with the requirement to register and the registration options available to them. Registration facilities have been available since 26 June 2012 and I consider that ample time has been afforded for people to register their on-site waste water treatment systems. I have no plans to extend the registration period.

Following the European Court of Justice judgment against Ireland in October 2009, my Department commenced the preparation of legislation to ensure compliance with the Court’s ruling; this included extensive stakeholder consultations between October and November 2010. On taking office in March, 2011, I prioritised the finalisation of the legislation and this culminated with the publication of the Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 on 3 November 2011 and its enactment on 2 February 2012.

I recently announced my intention to introduce a grant scheme to provide financial assistance to households whose septic tanks and other domestic wastewater treatment systems require remediation or upgrading following inspection under the Water Services (Amendment) Act 2012. I am making provision for the scheme in my Department’s Vote for 2013. The scheme will apply to treatment systems which have been registered by the due date of 1 February 2013 and which are deemed to require remediation having failed an inspection carried out under the 2012 Act. The grant payable will depend on the cost of the work necessary and the income of the household concerned, and the scheme will provide a higher level of support to households on lower incomes. Full details of the scheme will be defined in regulations which I will make in advance of inspections commencing this year.

It will be a matter for the Environmental Protection Agency to determine the level of inspections required. At this stage it is not possible to indicate how many systems will require remediation. However, the remedial action required on foot of an inspection of a septic tank will, in many cases, only involve householders having to de-sludge their tanks more frequently. The experience in County Cavan, where inspections have been carried out under the bye-laws in operation in that county since 2004, indicates that, where remediation was required, the average remediation cost was €2,500 and the failure rate was approximately 15% of systems inspected.

Registrations processed as of 14 January 2013.