Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The context of this meeting was to review the October incident, if we can call it that, and now we are in the middle of a November incident. To follow the Chairman's question, I would like Irish Water, the Department and Fingal County Council to give us a clearer view as to what the estimated time should be. Are two or three tests needed before we get the all-clear from the Health Service Executive, HSE? When can the more than 615,000 consumers expect to have clean drinking water again? That is the question that those watching us here want answered. How do we try to ensure that incidents like this do not happen again? We will not get 100% assurance but as best as possible. The whole of my area in Fingal is affected. People are very angry and concerned and the October incident, which appears to have been a monumental failure in process, has created a real difficulty in respect of confidence in the robustness and safety of our water supply. We do not want that to be the case. We need to find out what we will do now and how quickly.

I welcome aspects of the statements that have been made, particularly by Irish Water and Fingal County Council, about things that have been done very quickly but one striking point in the EPA report is that the incident began at 3 p.m. on Monday, 21 October and ended at 5 a.m. on Tuesday 22 October. In that period two alarms showed up in the control room in Leixlip, one at 6.16 p.m. and one at 7.07 p.m. and when they were not responded to and contaminated water was still going into the system a text message was sent to the operator and that was ignored. For anyone reading the report or watching this meeting that is absolutely inexcusable. How many other times have alarms been ignored?

I am sure the witnesses know when they have been ignored. I know of a couple of instances in the past in my area. I will not go into specifics as it is unfair to do so. How many other incidents have occurred? What happens when alarms are actually ignored?

In his opening statement, Mr. Gleeson stated: “Irish Water is in the process of bringing all critical alarms nationally into our national operations management centre.” I welcome the fact that the chief executive of Fingal County Council has also stated that the council wants that to happen without delay. Mr. Gleeson also stated: “For this to be beneficial, however, Irish Water needs to be able to contact plant operators directly when an alarm is triggered.” If an alarm is triggered, be it in Ballymore Eustace, Leixlip, Galway or any other plant, is it the case that Irish Water cannot contact them directly? The weakest link in the chain seems to be around when an alarm has been triggered because of contaminated water and that public safety could be at risk. Thankfully, both of the recent shutdowns have been precautionary. I want to assure people about public safety with regard to water supply. What happens if an alarm were to go off tomorrow and was not responded to?

I congratulate Ms Farrelly on her appointment and I know this is her first time before the committee. These are serious issues, however. It clearly is an absolute breakdown in process and procedure. I can only go from the report of the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, and trust what it has said. People want to get this fixed. What steps will be taken between now and then? Irish Water referred to the filter bed replacement which has gone to the second quarter in 2020. Will Irish Water speak about the UV treatment? Additional technologies were looked for in March and, specifically, in October. What will that entail in terms of capital investment and time required to put that in place?

Going back to our current crisis, we need to get a handle on communications as to when Irish Water estimates water supply will be back. It is a big issue for the infirm, the sick and the elderly.