Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 July 2015
303. Deputy Mick Wallace asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the sanctions that are imposed on local authorities which failed to meet the national inspection plan's target of 1,000 inspections of septic tanks by July 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29259/15]
View answer304. Deputy Mick Wallace asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the number of septic tanks that have been registered in County Wexford; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29260/15]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 303 and 304 together.
Neither I nor my Department have any direct role in monitoring the implementation of the EPA’s National Inspection Plan. Part 4A of the Water Services Act 2007 (as amended), a copy of which is available in the Oireachtas library, provides appropriate enforcement powers to the EPA, which is the supervisory body for the purposes of implementation of the National Inspection Plan.
The EPA has conducted a review of the implementation of the Plan for the period from 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014. The report contains a breakdown, by county, of inspections that have taken place and includes details relating to non-compliant treatment systems and advisory notices. It is available on the Agency’s website at the following link: http://www.epa.ie/pubs/reports/water/wastewater/Report%20National%20Inspection%20Plan%20Web.pdf.
The EPA’s review indicates that 99% of inspections targeted in the Plan’s first year were completed by the local authorities, with only two authorities not completing the number of inspections allocated to them. My Department has been advised that the outstanding inspections have since been completed.
The Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) was engaged by the local authorities to administer a central bureau (Protect Our Water) for the processing of registration applications on a shared service basis on behalf of the authorities. The Agency has advised my Department that the number of registrations for County Wexford, as at 1 4 July 2015, is 23,75 4. Census 2011, published by the Central Statistics Office, indicates that there were 21,242 septic tanks and 4,369 individual treatment systems in Wexford in 2011.
