Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The presentation today referred to inconvenience and disruption but that language does not meet what people are feeling. There have been two boil water notices in quick succession, having been none previously, and people are really afraid, worrying whether it is safe to drink their water. The tone of the witnesses needs to reflect the fact that there is real fear about the quality and safety of water. More than one in ten people are affected so it is huge.

On the issue of cloudy water, how does rain get into the water treatment plant? It comes in where there is not a combined sewer and surface water gets into the pumping stations, making the intake at Leixlip not as good as one would want and requiring a greater clean-up. How wide is the risk assessment in the context of rainfall levels?

Does it look further upstream, at both the pumping stations? Are there holding tanks there or not? What happens to overflows when there is a lot of rain?

I live in Leixlip and have got my water there since the late 1970s, so this is highly unusual. New developments now have separated systems so the phenomenon should be reducing, not growing. There are more households using the system and, of course, there is a lot of industry, with one wet industry in particular that uses a dedicated pipe. Does this get its supply wholly from Leixlip?