Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878

Power of sanitary authority to enforce drainage of undrained houses.

25. Where any house within the district of a sanitary authority is without a drain sufficient for effectual drainage, the sanitary authority may by written notice require the owner or occupier of such house, within a reasonable time therein specified, to make a covered drain or drains emptying into any sewer which the sanitary authority are entitled to use, and which is not more than one hundred feet from the site of such house; but if no such means of drainage are within that distance, then emptying into such covered cesspool or other place not being under any house as the sanitary authority direct; and the sanitary authority may require any such drain or drains, cesspool or cesspools, to be of such materials and size, and to be so ventilated, and to be laid at such level, and with such fall as may appear to them to be necessary: Provided that where, in the opinion of the sanitary authority, greater expense would be incurred in the construction of such cesspool or cesspools than in the making of a drain emptying into a sewer which they are entitled to use, the sanitary authority may require the owner or occupier to make such drain, notwithstanding that the sewer into which it is to empty is not within one hundred feet of the site of the house.

If such notice is not complied with, the sanitary authority may, after the expiration of the time specified in the notice, do the work required, and may recover in a summary manner the expenses incurred by them in so doing from the owner, or may by order declare the same to be private improvement expenses.

Provided that where, in the opinion of the sanitary authority, greater expense would be incurred in causing the drains of two or more houses to empty into an existing sewer pursuant to this section, than in constructing a new sewer and causing such drains to empty therein, the sanitary authority may construct such new sewer, and require the owners or occupiers of such houses to cause their drains to empty therein, and may apportion as they deem just the expenses of the construction of such sewer among the owners of the several houses, and recover in a summary manner the sums apportioned from such owners, or may by order declare the same to be private improvement expenses.