Written answers

Thursday, 2 February 2017

Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government

Wastewater Treatment Facilities Inspections

Photo of Kevin O'KeeffeKevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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154. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will consider granting special permission to an authority to carry out an inspection (details supplied). [5118/17]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Section 70 of the Water Services Act 2007 places a duty of care on the owner of a premises to ensure that their waste water treatment systems are kept so as not to cause, or be likely to cause, a risk to human health or the environment, including water, the atmosphere, land, soil, plants or animals, or create a nuisance through odours. The duty of care provisions have been augmented by the Water Services (Amendment) Act 2012 and associated regulations. Any person who considers that his or her treatment system constitutes, or may constitute, a risk to human health or the environment is responsible for having any necessary remediation works carried out without delay. The Act assigns responsibility to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make a National Inspection Plan (NIP) for domestic wastewater treatment systems and neither I nor my Department has any direct role in monitoring the implementation of the plan by the local authorities.

Local authorities carry out inspections of septic tanks and similar systems for a variety of reasons, including water quality issues at drinking water sources or within designated shellfish or bathing water catchments and arising from reports of pollution from members of the public. Separately, inspections are carried out based on the EPA’s National Inspection Plan 2015-2017: Domestic Waste Water Treatment Systems, which uses a risk-based methodology for the selection of systems for inspection, taking into account factors such as densities of individual treatment systems across the numerous hydrological and geological settings in Ireland and the locations of sensitive groundwater or surface water receptors. Selection of treatment systems for inspection under the EPA’s plan is carried out by the local authorities using an IT system developed by the EPA. Householders cannot request inspections of their own treatment systems. It is a matter for the local authority, using the systems available to it, to select relevant septic tanks for inspection.

The Domestic Waste Water Treatment Systems (Financial Assistance) Regulations 2013, a copy of which is available in the Oireachtas library, brought into operation a grants scheme to assist with the cost of remediation of septic tanks and domestic waste water treatment systems which are deemed, following inspection under the EPA’s National Inspection Plan and the subsequent issue of an Advisory Notice by the local authority, to require repair or upgrading. Full details of the scheme, including eligibility criteria, are set out in the explanatory leaflet and application form published on my Department’s website at: .

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