THE GOVERNMENT has been urged to ensure that only fully trained professionals are approved for a new inspection system for up to half a million septic tanks.
The recent death of a man who was working to clear storage tanks at a Co Cork hotel highlighted the occupational risks, Michael Madden told an Engineers Ireland conference in Galway.
A European Court of Justice ruling two years ago requires that the Department of Environment ensure there are “performance standards” and a system of monitoring and inspection for on-site waste-water treatment. Households must ensure that their systems are maintained correctly, are regularly serviced and must carry out remedial works.
Mr Madden said much could be achieved in addressing the root of the issue if it was a “prerequisite” that such systems were designed and certified by a competent professional in the first place.
He said the last Oireachtas joint committee on the environment had found that lack of adequate regulation was having a serious impact on the lives of people dependent on the systems for waste-water treatment, on those seeking planning permission for once-off rural housing, and for those working in the industry.
Also speaking at the two-day conference, the Housing and Sustainable Communities Agency’s chief executive John O’Connor criticised the current inaction over “ghost estates”. A Department of the Environment survey of unfinished housing estates published last October showed there were 33,000 vacant or nearly completed units, and 10,000 at the early stages of construction.
If developers and bankers “accepted reality” there were occupants for these houses, said Mr O’Connor. “Doing nothing and waiting is not going to work.”
Details of a report by 10 chartered engineers on infrastructure for the western region were outlined by Engineers Ireland director general John Power.
The report identifies the completion of the M17/M18 Gort to Claremorris section of the Atlantic Road corridor and the construction of the N6 Galway city outer bypass as “critical elements” for renewal.
