This article is from page 4 of the 2011-08-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
ALMOST 20,000 Clare households could face the prospect of shelling out as much as € 300 each to have their septic tanks examined following the implementation of EU legislation which is likely to become law in Ireland this September.
The new law would require every septic tank in the county to be examined by Clare County Council to determine if the tank meets with the new EU guidelines. It is understood that this examination would be carried out at the expense of the landowner themselves.
Should the septic fail to meet the standards required, improvements costing up to an estimated € 7,000 would be required – again with the home-owner responsible for meeting the cost of upgrading or replacing the septic tank.
A spokesperson from Clare County Council told The Clare People last week that the local authority were not in a position to comment on the issue until legislation had been passed by Government.
The local authority’s Director of Services for the Environment, David Timlin, did confirm that the number of Clare houses affected could be as high as 19,000.
“Until such time as any such legislation is published, I am not in a position to comment on the kind of regulatory regime that may be put in place. I will need to see what exactly the local authority’s responsibilities would be,” he said. “There are about 19,000 single-house treatment systems in Clare, mainly septic tanks.”
North West Area MEP, Marian Harkins (IND) hosted a public meeting on the subject in Ennis last Friday. “There is a huge inequity in requiring rural householders to pay an as yet undisclosed fee to inspect septic tanks which, if found deficient, could involve subsequent and significant additional costs for them,” she said.
“Bearing in mind that billions of Euro of exchequer and EU funding have been provided to supply a completely free sewerage service to urban dwellers, the least that rural dwellers should have is equally free service.
“Rural dwellers provide their own sewerage treatment at their own expense, and repair it at no cost to the state or local authorities.
“It is regrettable that the two parties of government, Fine Gael and Labour, have decided that rural dwellers will pay while their urban counterparts will not.”