MORE THAN 100 mostly rural dwellers attended a public meeting in Aughrim, Co Wicklow, last night to voice concern over proposed charges for inspection of domestic septic tanks.
The meeting in Lawless’s Hotel heard a range of speakers express worries about rising charges and ongoing requirements to make expensive alterations to septic tanks, many of which are more then half a century old.
Keynote speaker and Fianna Fáil TD Éamon Ó Cuív accused Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan of keeping rural householders in the dark about what standards would be required for existing septic tanks.
Mr Ó Cuív said householders had been asked to believe different standards would apply for different septic tanks when the Water Services Bill became law later this year.
He said Mr Hogan had claimed the standards that would apply would be those used at the time the building received planning permission. He said this would appear to suggest no standards would apply to buildings constructed before the planning laws in 1963.
Mr Ó Cuív said different standards applied at different times over the last half-century. But it was his belief the Environmental Protection Agency had no option but to insist on standards contained in its latest environmental guidance, issued last year.
He told the attendees they should support measures to “ensure that our water resources are kept clean and free from pollution” and they should recognise that a European Court judgment “requires the registration of domestic effluent systems”.
But he said that, without assurances on the standards to be met and an exchequer commitment on costs, the “people of Ireland are being sold a pig in a poke”.
Mr Ó Cuív told The Irish Timeshe would use the closed session of today's Oireachtas environment committee to propose the EPA be summoned to provide clarity on what standards would apply.