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

This is a major inconvenience for hundreds of thousands of people. A precautionary notice has been issued. The treatment process had begun on a portion of the water that went into a very large system but had not been completed. We believe the boil water notice is temporary. I will talk through the temporariness we hope to see. The testing is under way. The HSE needs to get three clear tests over a 72-hour period. We hope that will conclude before the weekend. Provided everything goes well, we hope we will be able to take the vast majority of people off that boil water notice before the bank holiday weekend. A greatly reduced number of households might continue to be subject to a boil water notice over the weekend, but that remains to be seen and depends on the testing.

I have requested a special report on it from the EPA. The EPA does not report to me, but in this exceptional circumstance, it will report to me directly on this following its investigation, which is under way. We do not need to provide water tankers because it is a boil water notice; people can boil their water before they use it as a precautionary measure.

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