The Government has been accused of “seriously misleading the Dáil and the public” by claiming that fines will be by imposed the State if the Septic Tank Bill is not passed by February 3.
The accusation has been made by Fianna Fáil deputy leader and Galway West TD Éamon Ó Cuív, who was speaking following a recent discussion in the Dáil.
Dep Ó Cuív was told by Minister Ruairí Quinn that the controversial Bill is being guillotined at Committee stage because the European Commission will fine Ireland €26,000 a day unless the legislation is in place by February 3.
However Dep Ó Cuív has since contacted the commission and has established that this is not true. According to the Connemara based TD, the commission has confirmed that fines will not be imposed after February 3 and that any such decision on fines will not be made until the summer.
“The Government has used threats of imminent fines to force the House into hurried decisions that will have very serious consequences for hundreds of thousands of home owners across the country,” said Dep Ó Cuív.
“It has now been confirmed to me by the European authorities that these threats are false. If deputies had been given the correct information they would have agreed that guillotining such an important Bill sends out the wrong message about how we do our work.”
