I agree with Deputy Martin regarding the plight of citizens who are waiting for new medical cards and who are caught in a bind because they have not received their medication. However, I want to talk to the Taoiseach about a different issue. Yesterday, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, announced a temporary reduction in the registration cost for septic tanks from €50 to €5 and this is to be welcomed. However, hundreds of thousands of rural dwellers still face the prospect of punitive bills for the upgrading or replacement of septic tanks. Does the Taoiseach accept that this discriminates against rural dwellers, that it is an attack on them and on rural communities? Billions of euro have been spent on upgrading and providing a modern sewerage system in urban areas. Rural households helped to pay for this with their taxes yet they are being forced by the Taoiseach's Government to bear the burden of the cost of improvements, upgrades or replacement. Is dona an scéal é go bhfuil pobal na tuaithe faoi ionsaí ag an Rialtas agus tá na mílte daoine ag cur in aghaidh an pholasaí seo trasna an Stáit. Sílim go bhfuil an ceart acu. The Taoiseach insists that rural householders will have to make improvements. We are in agreement about a clean environment and clean water and so on but on the other hand he is failing to provide standards or funding, he is threatening citizens with fines and prosecutions if they do not comply and he will criminalise rural households. Should not all people be treated equally? In another flip-flop, the Minister, Deputy Hogan, said this morning that some financial aid will be available but he did not give any details. I ask the Taoiseach to assure rural dwellers and communities that a full grant aid scheme will be available for those who are forced to upgrade their septic tanks.

I understand Deputy Adams has a holiday cottage in Donegal but I am not sure if it is connected to the public sewerage scheme. I suggest the next time he is there he should have a look. I am quite sure this is the first time for a long time that I have heard him welcome anything in this House. I am pleased he welcomes Deputy Hogan's common-sense approach to this matter. I am quite sure we are going to have people spluttering into their pints and saying, "Oh God, I should not have bought this, I should have registered the septic tank instead." For less than the price of a pint in many establishments, a person can register the fact that he or she is the owner of a septic tank. As Deputy Adams will undoubtedly agree, what we need in this country is clean water and safe water. I refer to the situation in Galway city just a few years ago where the reputation of our country was diminished by the existence and the extent of cryptosporidium in the water and its impact on industry. I am quite sure that even Deputy Adams, from his party's perspective, wishes to see as many people as possible employed and to have an environment and a water quality that is up to standard.

I have listened to hysterical comment about this and many other matters in the past few weeks. I have seen startling headlines and I have heard the Fianna Fáil Party say that rectification or improvement of a septic tank will cost €20,000. I have heard others say it will cost €17,000-----

It is the Taoiseach's own regulatory impact assessment, the Government's own document.

Deputy Michael Ring knows all about it. He is dealing with these things every day of the week.

That is the gold-plated version.

Order, please.

Any household can now register within the period at a cost of €5-----

A Fiver Monday.

Deputy McGrath has been deep in it-----

-----and next year, when the inspections commence - má tá tú ag dul a chaint faoi shéarachas, beidh mé ag caint leatsa Mattie, in a minute. It is not a universal inspection as was proposed in the Fianna Fáil proposal that every septic tank in the country would be inspected. In this case a sample number will be inspected based on quality of water. If a person is deemed to be the owner of a septic tank that is not in good condition, that is, living up to environmental standards, then the owner will be required to desludge the tank, which means, empty the tank and have the contents disposed of in the local authority system.

Deputy McGrath is the expert on desludging. He is a postgraduate and has a doctorate in desludging.

Order, please.

Deputy Adams will be aware, as the leader of his party, that his own members in Northern Ireland comply with and support charges that are very much in excess of what is being charged down here. This is part of a common-sense approach to have clean and safe water and having septic tanks that do what they are supposed to do - I acknowledge that the vast majority of them do so. Thousands of septic tanks were built under section 4 notices and where there was a lot of political input as much as input into the septic tanks-----

Very few and none in Tipperary.

In some cases these septic tanks were built on the borders and along the fringes of lakes and rivers where it is clear they could not function, given the status and structure implicit in those times.

Of course, no Fine Gael councillors were bad.

This is the issue and I remind Deputy Adams it will not be at a cost of €20,000, €17,000 or €10,000. It will cost €5 to register and if a random inspection decides there is a requirement then the consequence is that the septic tank must be desludged, emptied and the contents disposed of properly in the local authority sewerage system.

Deputy Adams has one minute for a supplementary question. Order, please.

Give them back the fivers, Mattie. Pay back the fivers you took from the people.

Minister, please. I have called Deputy Adams.

Give the fivers back. You are a fraud, Mattie.

How dare you. I will not be accused of being a fraud by anyone.

Deputy McGrath should resume his seat or he will leave the House.

I will not accept that, as Gaeilge nó as Béarla.

Leave the House, Deputy McGrath.

I will not.

You will leave the House.

He is a fraud. Ionsaí na hInse.

I ask the Minister of State please to allow Deputy Adams.

He has repeated that remark. It is an outrageous accusation and a slur. I will not accept that from anyone.

You will resume your seat, Deputy McGrath.

It is not fair. Why is he accusing me?

A political fraud of the first degree.

Political charges are being made here. The Deputy will have an opportunity later. This is Leaders' Questions.

There is a certain benign arrogance in the way the Taoiseach addresses some of these questions. One week he referred to citizens as being mad and this week he referred to them as spluttering into their pints. I am advised the Galway problem was caused by a public sewerage scheme and not by private septic tanks. It is the case that septic tanks in the North are desludged every year and the cost is borne by the state. In all of the Taoiseach's ramblings-----

It is only 40%.

-----he avoided the question-----

Order, please.

Why cannot there be a full grant aid scheme? Just before Christmas, the Minister said this could cost citizens in excess of €8,000 but last night he said it would cost €100. I have attended public meetings, including in my constituency, and people just cannot afford to pay this. They see it as discrimination against them and I agree with them completely. Those directives dated back to 1975. Fianna Fáil, in its time, had plenty of time to bring this in. Labour and Fine Gael coalitions, in their time, had time to bring it in but they did not do it. Why should citizens in rural areas be expected to pay for what should be an essential right?

We will have to wait for Sinn Féin to desludge.

In any society people should have safe sewage and the State should uphold that. When one forces a system on people through a series of threats, fines and all the rest, why can the Minister not simply stand up and say that the State will bear the cost of upgrading any tanks that need to be upgraded?

Is there any bandwagon Deputy Adams would not get on?

On 29 October-----

The Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, drove a few himself.

-----2009 the European Court of Justice ruled against this country. This has been going on since then without any action being taken. The Minister set out clearly what it is that he intends to do. Someone who registers in the first three months does so for €5 and inspections do not start until 2013. The inspections are not universal in the way that applied under the Fianna Fáil proposal. It is not a requirement to bring all septic tanks up to the 2009 standard as set by the Environmental Protection Agency. That only applies in the case of new septic tanks. There are matters that householders living in the country, as I do, can take into account, namely, the prevention of run-off water from the roof and outside buildings running into the septic tank-----

We all know that. Any clown would know that.

-----the treatment of grey water, as it is called, whereby phosphates in washing detergent going into the system affect the working mechanism of a septic tank, and the issue of pipes leading to manholes.

Do they wash the roofs and all with washing powder?

Deputy Mattie McGrath knows all about that.

Did he wash the roofs and all?

They go to the toilet on the roof.

Please, Deputy McGrath.

Even Deputy Mattie McGrath will understand that old-style septic tanks would overflow if they get filled.

Tar ar ais.

You are full of it.

There is also a requirement to keep down the level of unnecessary liquid and sediment going into the tank in the first place. The Minister set out the structure. There are no inspections until 2013. I would encourage everyone to avail of the common sense offer of a registration for €5 in the three month period.

It is not common sense; it is a climb-down.

Is Deputy Mattie McGrath not happy?

Take a laxative, Mattie.

Far from the evidence of the hysterical ranting of Deputy Mattie McGrath and Deputy Ó Cuív, this is a common sense approach-----

The Government side would want a box of them.

-----to a problem we have had for a long time in this country but have done nothing about.

Deputy Martin's party put forward the view that we could get a derogation to allow us to cut turf all over the place for ten years, which was never the case.

What is the Taoiseach talking about? That is rubbish.

There is nothing wrong with cutting turf.

That is the kind of nonsense which prevailed for good Government and good governance in this country. In this case the Minister, Deputy Hogan, set it out clearly and reasonably. People in the countryside know that they want to contribute to having clean water-----

We know that.

-----and this will be done at a normal cost.

People want to know the cost.

I assure Deputy Dooley that if the system is not working-----

Fix it, so.

-----the answer is that under this requirement the owner of the septic tank will have to desludge it. That means they will have to get it pumped out and treated properly in a local authority works.

Hear, hear.

What about the percolation area?