An issue of fairness
The intention of the government to press ahead with a nationwide inspection regime for septic tanks is to be welcomed from the point of view of safeguarding the environment and preserving public health. There is also a more local, selfish reason in that County Cavan has been the subject of its own inspection system for the past six years - Cavan County Council requiring single house owners in the county to have their septic tanks inspected and upgraded if necessary. While this has been an added burden on the county's rural dwellers there has been no significant rumblings of discontent with Cavan single house owners bearing their lot with quiet resignation - another sheaf of straw on the back of the already overladen camel perhaps! The proposed new government inspection regime places the issue on a national plane and aims to codify the condition of the state's 440,000 septic tanks which up until now are not the subject of any monitoring. The new inspection regime indicates that the same rules apply for a single home owner in Kerry as it does in Cavan. There is a feeling of fairness about it in that sense. However, it is the issue of fairness that is certain to shape the debate around Minister Hogan's proposals. The IFA is totally opposed to any charge for the inspection of septic tanks or that rural dwellers should have to bear the cost of any septic tank upgrade. They have a good case when they point to the billions spent by the state on the provision of urban sewerage schemes and water treatment plants while people with houses in the countryside are expected to pay every last cent for the effective functioning of their septic tanks. It does seem to be a strange rationale and perhaps reflects an attitude by our masters in Europe who look with not a little jealousy at our stock of single homes. Do they think that Irish rural dwellers got above their station and should now pay for this impudence? It is the big stick being waved by Europe that is making the government comply with their request for septic tank registration and inspection. Europe should, therefore, be prepared to come up with some level of funding to assist Irish rural home owners in the maintenance of their septic tanks. The government then should come up with the rest. It is only a matter of fairness that this should be done.
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