John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

The risks to water supply in flooding incidents arise either from direct flooding of water supply facilities which render operation impossible, or from a deterioration of the raw water quality which compromises the effectiveness of the treatment process. Both issues have arisen in some areas as a consequence of the flooding in the south and west.

Cork City Council's water treatment plant at Lee Road, which supplies most of the city, was closed as a result of the flooding of the plant. I understand that substantial additional supply to the city has been made available by Cork County Council, which has increased production at the Inniscarra and Glashaboy treatment plants to the maximum. However, there are no facilities to pump this additional water to the reservoirs which supply the 18,000 households affected. The city council has arranged for tankered water, stand pipes and bottled water to be delivered to the households in the city without mains supply in accordance with the drinking water incident response plan guidance. The city council is working to replace or repair the affected pumping equipment as quickly as possible.

In the Cork County Council area, the flooding has led to deterioration in raw water quality and precautionary boil notices have been put in place on four water supply schemes, namely, Inchigeela, Innishannon, Ballineen and Clondrohid. Flood damage to part of the treatment plant in Ballinasloe, while not requiring the closure of the plant has meant that a precautionary boil notice has been put in place on this supply. A precautionary boil notice is now in place for similar reasons on the Mount Talbot Four Roads water supply scheme in County Roscommon. These are the main boil notice situations arising from current flooding instances. Local authorities are required to liaise with the HSE before issuing or removing a boil water notice and they must also notify the Environmental Protection Agency of such notices.

I want to discuss the new elements of the planning system.

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