Letterkenny Town Councillor Gerry Mc Monagle has accused Minister Phil Hogan of failing to give a commitment on financial assistance for households who must upgrade their septic tanks.
Responding to the publication of septic tank guidelines by the Department of the Environment, the Sinn Fein politician said his party fully supports protecting our water system and wants septic tanks to meet EU standards.
“Our submission to the septic tank guidelines was comprehensive and solution-based. We welcome their publication but Minister Hogan has once again failed to provide people with financial means to upgrade their septic tanks to meet these new standards.
“The Minister must give a commitment that financial assistance will be provided to households that need it. It is simply not good enough to arrive in forty years too late with standards and no financial plan to ensure they are fully implemented. If households are expected to register they must know what assistance will be available,” he said.
He added the concern with group schemes is that they will only function when connected to existing sewers and will not work in isolated rural areas.
“The €2,000 grant for group schemes is totally inadequate. The Minister knows this and has given assurance that this will be revised upwards as a matter of urgency.’
“It is also important that local authority staff are used to carry out the inspections. It would be far more cost effective to utilise council engineers rather than private contractors to carry out this work.”
The outgoing Mayor of Letterkenny added that whilst the Minister has published Guidelines for Septic Tanks he has done nothing to address the growing issue of Mechanical Plants in many of our Housing Developments here in Letterkenny and indeed throughout the county.
“When Minister Hogan visited Letterkenny last year I took the opportunity to raise with him the difficulties that Mechanical Pumping Stations were beginning to cause residents throughout the county who depended on them for treatment of their sewerage.
“And whilst these problems are becoming a bigger concern the Minister has yet to respond to my calls for his Department to step in and provide the necessary funding to upgrade and maintain these mechanical Plants leaving residents with, in some case’s massive bills and in others with no sewerage treatment facility at all.
“ This is not good enough, I will be asking Brian Stanley TD Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on the Environment to continue to put pressure on Minister Hogan to provide financial assistance for households in order to meet the septic tanks standards and to also deal with the growing problems of Mechanical Plants”
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