Septic tank charge - Francovich/negligence?

Corruptable

I haven't covered any EU law to date but I remember reading that it is possible to take an action against the State in Tort where the State has failed to meet a deadline for implementing an EU Directive.

In the recent controversy of waste water treatment, given the ECJ's decision in 2008, and the fact that it originally stems from Directive 75/442/EEC ("The Council Directive of 15 July 1975 on Waste") which was required to be implemented by 1993 according to the abovementioned case, could a person directly affected by the State's failure to implement that directive take an action due to the losses they will suffer by having to bring their septic tank up to standard.

Again, I'm no expert, but everyone who has even sat through a module on the legal system knows about Francovich v Italy [1991] ECR I-5357, in which the ECJ held that one could establish state liability on the basis of the failure the implement a directive, if there is a causal link between the state's failure to implement the directive and the loss suffered. Ursula Connolly, writing in the Roundhall Nutshell on Tort (2005), notes that the process of establishing a causal link would be similar to that of the Tort of Negligence (i.e.: that the damage was brought about by the State's failure to implement the law).

A lot of people I know have built homes that will not comply with the new legislation (the standards of which are still unknown) throughout the 1970s, '80s, and '90s who will now have to spend thousands to update their system of waste water treatment. Many people, including opposition TDs, have raised the issue that it would be unjust to require these septic tanks to be retrospectively taken in with the legislation and if intending on doing that, then the State should provide financial assistance such as a partial grant, to get them to the necessary level since it is not the individual's fault that the State did not properly implement a directive, even if the legally relevant period for those affected would be only 1993-present.

Comments, thoughts, and analysis are all welcome.

BrianD

But the charge is only an inspection charge to evaluate if a tank meets requirements or not. There is a record of (almost) all tanks in Ireland as PP would have been required in the first place. Whether they were built as per the granted permission is another thing - hence, I presume, why there are inspections.

What happens after that will be the possibly where what you refer to will kick in.

There has been some discussion of grants and the like but nothing concrete.