The Water Services (Amendment) Act 2012 provides that t he basic standard to be met by all domestic waste water treatment systems is that they should not create a risk to public health or the environment. Draft standards to augment this requirement were drawn up by my Department in consultation with the EPA and were issued for public consultation in March 2012. 165 submissions were received and were taken into consideration in the Water Services Acts 2007 and 2012 (Domestic Waste Water Treatment Systems) Regulations which I made on 26 June 2012. The regulations set out performance standards, including requirements regarding the maintenance and de-sludging of on-site systems. The relevant legislation is available in the Dáil library.