Inspections by the water services authorities will begin this month, the Minister said on Monday.

The grant scheme is open only to householders whose waste water treatment system fails one of the local authority inspections now due to get under way. It is not open to applications from householders whose tanks and treatment systems are faulty but have not been inspected.

In addition, the scheme is confined to tanks and treatment systems that were registered with local authorities by the deadline of 1 February 2013. Grant aid is not payable on a defective system that was registered after the deadline or that has not yet been registered.

The Minister said almost 446,000 householders have now registered their septic tanks. “I am delighted that almost 90% of all owners of premises connected to such systems have registered their systems and I wish to thank those who have done so.’’

Meanwhile, Minister for Housing and Planning Jan O’Sullivan has enacted legislation giving an exemption from planning permission for work arising from an inspection under the National Inspection Plan for waste treatment systems. The Irish Farmers Journal understands this will allow householders install new treatment systems or upgrade existing ones without facing the cost of a planning application.

The National Inspection Plan provides that a minimum of 1,000 inspections will take place nationally between now and July 2014.

Treatment systems will be examined to ensure they are not posing a risk to public health or the environment through leakage or discharges to the surface of the ground or into nearby ditches. An inspection will also check to ensure that regulations regarding roof and surface water as well as grey water are complied with. Clean water must be diverted away from treatment systems; grey water must be piped into a tank or system.

The application form for the new grant scheme was available to download from the Department of Environment website this week but not the scheme’s terms and conditions.

Grant rate

Households with income of up to €50,000 per annum will be eligible to apply for a grant of 80% of approved costs with a maximum grant payable of €4,000. Households with incomes between €50,001 and €75,000 will be eligible for a grant of 50% of approved costs with a maximum grant payable of €2,500.

Grants will not be paid towards the costs of maintaining, servicing or de-sludging a domestic waste water treatment system as these are costs which owners should be incurring to ensure that their systems are functioning properly.

Applicants must submit evidence of household income, itemised receipts for the work carried out and a copy of the contractor’s tax clearance certificate.