Councillor Michèal Naughton has called on Ministers Eamonn Ryan and Minister Darragh O’Brien to change the regulations in relation to both septic tanks and water well grants.
He moved a motion on the issue at last week’s plenary meeting of Donegal County Council.
“Currently, with the septic tank grant, you need to have it registered by February 2013, this leaves a lot of families at a disadvantage in Donegal and rural Ireland,” Cllr Naughton said.
Following a recent workshop, officials from Donegal County Council informed councillors that Donegal had the lowest uptake when it came to registering their septic tanks. As a result, he added, home-owners are now discovering they are not entitled to the grants as they had not registered prior 2013.
In addition, the well grant required that the house must be over five years old to be considered for funding.
“Again, this is a huge disadvantage to people starting out in building their own home. We are all too aware of the prices that Uisce Eireann (Irish Water) are charging for connection fees for water with some people being quoted anything from €30-60k for a new connection.”
Cllr Naughton said Donegal is a rural county and a lot of homes here are independently served by their own septic tanks or water supplies.
“So, it leaves a lot of homeowners at a disadvantage with the current regulations that are in place,” he explained.
“I am calling on the ministers to change the time frames of the current regulations, so people are not at a disadvantage when they apply for these grants. Only recently, the government launched the Croì Conaithe scheme which is to bring vacant and derelict properties back into use. Again, these properties would be serviced by single septic tanks and water supplies, which again would be impossible to have registered by February 2013. A lot of the singular concrete septic tanks will have to be changed going forward, so there are going to be a lot of homeowners in Donegall left at a financial disadvantage.
