Mr. Andy Fanning:

Deputy Murphy asked about pumping stations. The committee will be aware that a sewer is a pipe of a certain diameter and it can fill up. If there is no separation between rainwater and the sewage flowing through the pipe, capacity can be exceeded and there can be a combined sewer overflow. In many cases, this overflow reaches rivers and waterways. It tends to be more diluted than raw sewage because of water flowing through the pipe. Part of our March audit examined these issues. Our audit report included a specific recommendation for Irish Water to draw up a documented protocol for communication between Osberstown and Leixlip wastewater treatment plants so that operators would be alerted if there was an issue. That is what happened. My understanding is that the protocol is now in place if overflows occur. It is absolutely true that if water is taken from a lowland location at the back end of a catchment close to the sea, it is more likely to contain material from agriculture, industry and towns and villages.