Half of septic tank owners pay by deadline

Almost half of households with septic tanks registered with their local authority before the deadline of Sep 28 to avail of the reduced €5 registration fee.

The Department of Environment confirmed 165,253 owners of septic tanks registered before the end of last month, while a further 85,000 applications submitted before the deadline are still being processed by the Local Government Services Management Agency.

The late surge helped to push the registration rate up from 33% to almost 50% in the space of a week, raising around €1.25m to fund an inspection scheme which will come into effect next year to bring Ireland in line with EU legislation.

The Government estimates there are almost 497,300 private waste water systems around the country, based on recent census data.

Householders who have not yet registered have until Feb 1 to pay the increased registration fee of €50.

The €5 reduced fee was introduced by Environment Minister Phil Hogan as an incentive amid fears by the Government that the registration of septic tanks would meet large-scale public opposition similar to that to the household charge.

Any owner of a septic tank who has not registered by next February’s deadline faces the prospect of fines of up to €5,000.

The inspection regime for septic tanks was introduced as a result of legal action against the State by the European Commission. The issue came up before a hearing of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg earlier this week.

In a 2009 ruling, the ECJ found Ireland had failed to comply with an EU Waste Directive regarding the disposal of domestic waste water from septic tanks.

The European Commission argues the State is still not compliant with the judgment two years later, and is seeking a daily fine of €4,771.20 dating from the original judgement in Oct 2009 and any ruling in the present case.

If found still to be non-compliant, Ireland could face fines that would currently stand at over €5.1m.

The State could face even higher fines as the Commission has also sought a further daily fine of €26,000 for each day between the forthcoming judgment and full compliance.

The Government says it has adopted the necessary legislation since the original ECJ ruling in 2009, and challenged the rate of the daily fine because of the current economic climate.

Figures supplied in response to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil’s Éamon Ó Cuív, based on the 165,000 owners who registered their septic tank before last week, show the highest compliance rates were in Kerry and Wicklow (both 43%), followed by Cork City (41%). There was a compliance rate of 33% in the Cork County Council area. The lowest compliance rate was recorded in Dublin City Council, where just 2% of the estimated 2,700 householders with septic tanks had registered, followed by Donegal (21%) and Galway City (24%).

Cork County Council has the most septic tanks, with an estimated 58,000, followed by Galway (42,161) and Donegal (32,955).