John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

I am replying on behalf of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government who regrets that he cannot be present. I thank the Senator for raising the issue.

Each local authority is responsible for the quality of the drinking water it supplies to the public and is legally required to ensure that any failure to meet quality standards is investigated immediately to determine the cause and remedied as quickly as possible. Galway City Council's priorities are urgently to introduce additional water treatment to eliminate the leaching of lead into the supply and to implement permanent pipe replacement measures as quickly as possible. The council has engaged a recognised expert on lead contamination who has visited the two water treatment plants serving the city. Work on the additional treatment — pH correction — has begun and initial testing indicates that it has resulted in a drop in lead levels in affected areas.

I understand the HSE has confirmed that tests carried out have established that none of the affected householders has shown any evidence of lead toxicity. Sampling of water throughout the affected areas is continuing. The council is providing drinking water from tankers and is subsidising bottled water for affected households. The council is also advancing plans to replace lead distribution mains. These works will be funded by the Department under the water services investment programme.

Substantial funding is also being provided to both Galway City Council and Galway County Council to enable them to provide high quality water services infrastructure in their areas. The water services investment programme includes more than 50 major water and sewerage schemes, with a value of more than €464 million, for County Galway and a further eight schemes worth in excess of €114 million for Galway city. In particular, substantial funding is being provided towards the city's programme to replace old water distribution pipes.

There is a record allocation of €560 million for new water and sewerage schemes next year, an increase of 19% over 2008. This is the clearest possible statement by the Government of the priority attached to high quality water and waste water services. As far as individual service pipes are concerned, under water services legislation the owner of a premises is responsible for ensuring that the internal water distribution system is capable of delivering drinking water that complies with drinking water standards. This is similar to the provision of an electricity supply to a house where the internal wiring is the responsibility of the owner or occupants, not the supplier. The Department's water services investment programme funds major strategic infrastructural projects but does not extend to replacing individual service connections or other measures relating to single households.

The Minister has asked me to say that he greatly sympathises with those people who are enduring the hardship of not having a good quality water supply. He is providing funding for any necessary infrastructural works the city council needs to undertake and will facilitate the council in every way possible to get these works completed quickly. He regrets that there is no source of funding from which he could provide grants to individual householders. I hope this helps to clarify the matter for the Senator.