Mr. Noel Byrne:

For drinking water, Uisce Éireann has online sampling on the water as it comes into treatment plants and take it out of the river. That would be available on time. It watches the water as it comes into the plant and tests for things like PH and ammonia. So Uisce Éireann would see any changes in the water. That is a very instant test it would see at the time. It would not tend to hold that sample after a period. Uisce Éireann would sample the water sample there and then but would not retain it for a period of two or three weeks.

For wastewater discharge licences, Uisce Éireann uses composite sampling and flow proportion of the discharges. A small sample is taken every hour, relative to the flow. So Uisce Éireann has that sampled daily and can observe the sample. For regulatory purposes, Uisce Éireann will test that in line with what is required for legislation. If it happens to sample it for the purpose of operational reasons, so if it sees something different in the discharge or in the sample, then Uisce Éireann can take a sample for operational purposes.