Mr. Tom Cuddy:

The raw water is the issue. Manganese is a naturally occurring mineral and the amount of it in the raw water is far greater than it has been. It is much more widespread across the country. It also tends to be seasonal, so it comes to the fore in the summer time and late summer. That adds to the issue. Of course, manganese is not captured by our normal treatment. What happens is that it comes out of solution when it is in the network. It then causes cloudy and speckled water. The only resolution, once it gets that far, is for us to flush the network. Initially, when this came to our attention a couple of years ago, simple local flushing was sufficient. Now it has progressed to the stage where it needs, as the Deputy also mentioned, pretty much a dedicated a flushing team and we have had to make changes within the network.

To go back to address the fundamental issue, this is really a treatment issue. It is a matter of improving the treatment process and adding to it. It is a new process within the overall treatment plant. To go back further to the issue of raw water in the catchment area, a study is now being undertaken by the EPA and we are participating in that. It seems to be a phenomenon not just in Ireland, but across northern Europe. It is a matter that we will have to deal with more and more.

The comments from the CRU are related to the fielding of calls and their categorisation as complaints. Be that as it may, once these calls and issues are raised with us, they are still investigated thoroughly at site level. The reaction on the ground at an operational level is exactly the same, however. The communications were not to the standard that was required. Many lessons were learned from that and that has been corrected at this stage.

I think Mr. Laffey might want to touch on the overall manganese treatment issue across the country, which I know-----