Dr. Tom Ryan:

With regard to both of the incidents, in addition to the incident in Leixlip the Vice Chairman mentioned, the root cause analysis came down to issues around mechanical failures, lack of training and failures to escalate. Those are the issues detected at the local level. It is our view that it is Irish Water's statutory responsibility to provide safe and secure water to the public. Therefore, arrangements need to be put in place and working appropriately which ensure that, when incidents occur in plants, they are escalated so that action can be taken. The two incidents in question, those in Gorey and Ballymore Eustace, occurred as a result of preventable issues. If the incidents at those plants had been escalated in time, there would have been an opportunity to do a risk assessment and to place boil water notices on the public supply in both cases. Public health would have been secured and safeguarded in that way.

Boil water notices are an inconvenience to the consumer but they do safeguard and protect consumers, or allow them to protect themselves, while the issues at the plant are being resolved, so-----