Septic tank registration costs less than a pint, says Taoiseach

PEOPLE WOULD now be able to register their ownership of septic tanks for less than the price of a pint in some establishments, the Taoiseach told the Dáil.

Enda Kenny said the announcement of a temporary reduction in the registration fee, from €50 to €5, would be welcomed.

“I am quite sure, you know, you are not going to have people spluttering into their pints and saying, ‘Oh God, I shouldn’t have bought this: I should have registered the septic tank instead,’ ’’ Mr Kenny added.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said while the reduction was to be welcomed, hundreds of thousands of rural dwellers still faced the prospect of punitive bills for upgrading and replacing septic tanks.

“I ask the Taoiseach to assure rural dwellers and communities that a full grant-aid scheme will be available for those who are forced to upgrade their septic tanks,’’ he said.

Mr Kenny said he understood Mr Adams had a holiday cottage in Donegal, but he was not sure if it was connected to the public sewerage scheme. “I suggest the next time he is there he should have a look,” he added.

Clean and safe water was needed, said Mr Kenny, adding that the country’s reputation had been diminished some years ago by the existence and extent of cryptosporidium in the water in Galway.

“I am sure that even Deputy Adams, from his party’s perspective, wishes to see as many people as possible employed and to have an environment and a water quality that is up to standard,’’ he said.

Mr Kenny said he had listened to “hysterical comment about this and many other matters’’ in the past few weeks.

He had seen “startling headlines’’ and heard the Fianna Fáil party say rectification or improvement of a septic tank would cost €20,000, and others had said €17,000.

Mr Kenny said if a person was deemed to be the owner of a septic tank that was not up to environmental standards, then the owner would be required to desludge the tank, which meant emptying it and having the contents disposed of in the local authority system.

Mr Adams, he said, would be aware, as the leader of his party, that his members in Northern Ireland complied with and supported charges very much in excess of what was being charged in the Republic.

Mr Adams accused the Taoiseach of exhibiting “a certain benign arrogance’’ in the way he addressed some questions.

He was advised, he said, that the Galway water problem was caused by a public sewerage scheme, while septic tanks in the North were desludged every year at a cost to the state.