We have seen the recent Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, report on septic tanks, pollution of lakes and so on. I think there is a grant of €5,000 available from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage for upgrading septic tanks. That is inadequate. I call on the Leader to contact the Minister. It is very hard to get a contractor to do a small job installing a new percolation system or whatever. They are quite costly as well. That grant needs to be upgraded. I also ask that we look at the whole area of communal schemes. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that we could have innovative systems where a number of houses could come together. We should discuss the whole area of extensions to small sewerage schemes and communal schemes. Since Irish Water has been made a separate business, I am not so sure how small schemes are progressed from local authorities up to Irish Water as regards responsibility for putting water and sewerage systems in place. If an extension is required to a small rural scheme or a new rural scheme is needed in its own right, how does that progress now so that it gets on the radar of Irish Water? Before this, local authority members proposed a scheme at local authority level and asked the management of the local authority to investigate a scheme. I am not sure how it works now. I do not think the local authority members know how it works. I do not think the Government knows how it works either. Is it entirely left to Irish Water? Have the local authorities a function? This is an area we could have a debate on. I ask the Leader to arrange a debate in this area and that she might contact the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in regard to the grant for the improvement of septic tanks.

Following on from my colleague Senator Burke, something I raised on the Order of Business last week and on which I had hoped a Commencement matter would be taken either yesterday or today is the issue of people who did not register their septic tanks before 1 February 2013 and are excluded from the grant scheme referred to by Senator Burke. These may be people who did not own the property in 2013 and have since bought one in 2016, 2017, 2018 or 2019. Because the previous owners of that property did not register the septic tank on 1 February 2013, the current owners are excluded from the grant scheme. I understand a review is under way but I must put on record that I was very disappointed that when I wrote to the Minister, Deputy Ryan, in respect of this matter to highlight it on the basis of a water quality issue, even though the grant scheme is operated by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, my correspondence with the Minister was just forwarded to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. That is inadequate to me. This is a water quality issue and it is something on which his Department should be engaging with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to try to bring those excluded into the scheme.

The second point I wish to highlight is the importance of the review of the disabled persons grant scheme, which is also being carried out currently by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. These grants are essential for older persons to enable them to remain in their homes for longer. This is dragging on at this stage. It is not just a case of increasing the grant amounts so that more works can be covered by this but also that the quantum of grant support being given to local authorities is inadequate. In the context of the budget surpluses we have at the moment, the fact these are one-off grant measures means that the Government has the ability to fund local authorities with an extra block grant this year. This has to happen quickly. There is no point in giving it to local authorities in October or November and telling them they must have it spent by the end of the year. That is not a reality. They need to get that extra grant support now to be able to support older persons and those with disabilities to remain longer in their homes.