Speaking to the Athlone Advertiser this week, local Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, stressed the importance of water quality to communities.
The Minister, who highlighted the need to upgrade septic tank improvement grants, was supported by his political party colleague, Cllr Tom Farrell who commended the progress made by Deputy Burke in this regard.
“There are many households with ageing septic tank systems and they would only love to upgrade, but currently, you need to be randomly inspected by the Local Authority to be in with a chance of funding. I would like to see a proactive approach to this and for the Department to fund the Local Authority to actively go and inspect and issue grants to properties that need the work carried out. A system similar to the Local Improvement Scheme, which is administered locally would be most effective.
“This would be a win win situation as water quality would be improved and with flooding issues in many localities there would be obvious benefits.
“I am glad there has been progress reviewing this scheme and I look forward to seeing the report findings in due course,” Cllr Farrell stated.
