Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her question. It is a very serious issue. Part of the rationale behind the metering programme that Irish Water has developed, although people tended to focus on the water charges aspect of it, is that it gave us much better intelligence on our water system. We saw the benefit of this during the drought over the summer. The further roll-out of metering will allow us to identify the most seriously affected areas. This mainly affects pre-1980s houses. A huge amount has already been invested in the public water system since then to replace public lead pipes. About another 180,000 homes are on public supplies using a type of lead pipe which needs to be replaced at a cost of about €370 million. This money has been provided and is being invested. We also have a grant scheme for individual households where the lead pipes might be in private property. Such households can use this grant scheme to remediate their own homes. Recent reports, as well as commentary from the EPA, have suggested that this grant scheme was perhaps not being taken up as proactively as possible. We are therefore working to see how we can ensure that people replace pipes on their private property. They can test the water very easily. As for the public side, we have the investment committed.

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