John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 6, 26, 43, 120 and 121 together.

As I indicated in reply to Question No. 1, my Department co-ordinates and finances a major programme of investment in improved drinking water supply infrastructure, active leakage control, telemetry and rehabilitation of water mains, on which some €1.6 billion has been invested by the Government in the period since 2000. Substantial additional funding is being provided this year from the total Exchequer provision of €500 million for the water services investment programme. This level of investment reflects the priority assigned by Government to meeting EU standards for drinking water and providing critical water supply infrastructure, which has seen additional drinking water treatment capacity and additional drinking water storage capacity equivalent to the needs of a population of 855,000 and 1.5 million, respectively, provided since 2000.

A rigorous supervisory framework has also been put in place to ensure good quality drinking water is provided and that effective mechanisms are available to deal quickly and effectively with problems where they arise. My Department has also been working closely with water services authorities, who are generally responsible for the management of public drinking water supplies, and the EPA to ensure that the management structures for the supply of drinking water are of the highest standard. The recently published report, The Quality of Drinking Water in Ireland - A Report for the Years 2007 and 2008, shows that overall the quality of our drinking water is good and further progress has been made in improving drinking water quality in recent years. The report shows that monitoring of water supplies increased by 8.1% over 2006 and details the agency's enforcement activities, including the first prosecution of a water services authority under the drinking water regulations of 2007.

The report highlights, however, the need for further improvements if high standards of drinking water quality are to be maintained. It identified a number of public water supplies that require detailed profiling from catchment to consumer to determine whether the supply needs to be replaced or upgraded, or where operational practices need to be improved to ensure that the water supplied to the general public is clean and wholesome. The fact that a water supply is on this list does not necessarily mean that the water produced by the supply is unsafe to drink.

My Department and the EPA developed an action programme in response to a similar remedial action list identified in 2008. In the case of some 60% of the supplies, the safety and security of supply could be addressed through abandonment of existing sources, better operational procedures or relatively small-scale improvements to the treatment processes. I made available a fund of €16 million in 2008 to deal with these small-scale improvements. The balance of the supplies require new or updated infrastructure and these are included in the water services investment programme. My Department will be reviewing the additions to the list in 2009 with the EPA and relevant water services authorities to identify the appropriate solutions in these cases.

I am satisfied that the combination of the rigorous supervisory framework which I have put in place and the resources being devoted to the water services infrastructure will ensure continuous improvement in the quality of our water supply.

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