Roscommon and Leitrim were among counties with the highest failure rates when it came to septic tank inspections last year. More than half of sceptic tanks failed inspection last year nationwide. The failure rate was between 70 and 97 per cent in Roscommon, Leitrim, Westmeath, Offaly. Kildare and Laois. The figures from the Environmental Protection Agency also show that 82 per cent of failures between 2013 and 2024 were fixed by the end of last year.
Almost 1 thousand 400 inspections were carried out by local authorities in 2023. Local Authorities targeted their inspections near rivers and household drinking water wells which are most at risk of contamination by faulty septic tanks. 56 per cent of those that failed did so because they were not built or maintained properly. Programme Manager with the EPA, Noel Byrne, says the level of failure is concerning:
