Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have three quick questions - I realise the Senator has not got in yet. The first thing is to go back to the question of the alarm. The EPA report in March indicated an issue with responding to the alarms. I am interested to know how Irish Water and Fingal County Council responded. What was done to try to ensure that that issue of non-response to the alarm that occurred in March, which was identified in the EPA report in April, did not recur? There is obviously the issue of who did not respond to the alarm and why. There is also the question of the management system in place. Given that there had been an earlier incident I am interested to hear back on that matter.

The second question is for Irish Water. It goes back to the question of the November incident and what works need to be done to ensure that the possibility of that type of incident is reduced as much as possible. I understand from the last response that work is being done around the filtration system. If it is decided to do the ultraviolet work and money is provided, would that reduce the likelihood of recurrence of the November incident or would further works be required to mitigate the effects?

My final question is for the Department officials. I appreciate that the reports the Department received from the EPA right up to September did not specifically relate to this audit and the issue of slippage, as the EPA termed it, in implementation. The references were more part of a general report. The Department gets those general reports. At what point does the Department start to red-flag stuff in a preventative way? We have heard from other Deputies about boil water notices for over 100 consecutive days. Is there a point at which the Department decides there is a problem it needs to get involved in? If so, what does the Department do at that stage, other than receiving the information and being informed?

The Irish Water officials addressed a question on compensation for non-domestic customers. Is compensation available for regular families? The Irish Water officials seemed to indicate that if people request bottled water they will get it. That is certainly news to me and probably to the vast majority of people who have been spending sums of money on this. Is there a facility available for individuals and families who have spent significant sums of money on bottled water to recoup or to secure bottled water directly from Irish Water?