Hogan hints at financial aid for septic tank cleaning

The Environment Minister Phil Hogan has indicated there may be help at hand for people who have to pay to clean out their septic tank if they fail an inspection.

Last night, Mr Hogan revealed that the registration fee for septic tank inspections would be reduced to €5 for the first three months, to incentivise people to sign up early ahead of the start of inspections next year.

The Minister said he does not expect there will be a widespread problem of tanks failing inspections.

However, the Environment Minister said if the cost of cleaning up a tank is too steep, he could look at some kind of assistance for householders.

Mr Hogan said: "It costs about €100 to desludge your tank so that is not an onerous financial burden on anyone to ensure that we have good water quality and to protect the environment.

"If a few cases, which I don't think there will be too many, where there is serious financial issues involved for low-income families, I will certainly look at that, at that time. I don't want to pre-empt that at the moment because I don’t know the extent of the problem until we do the inspections in 2013."