Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for taking this matter. He will be familiar with the fact that last summer there were two very serious E.coli outbreaks, one in Ballymore Eustace, which provides much of the water supplies of Kildare and Dublin, and the other in my home town of Gorey. There were 52 confirmed illnesses, and potentially more, as a result of those outbreaks and the difficulties that happened at the time. There has been an examination by the Environmental Protection Authority, EPA, of what happened. My understanding is that Wexford County Council's report on the matter has been finalised but has not yet been published because it must first go to a number of the parties that were identified. I hope it will be published in the very near future because it is important for the people for Gorey and everyone else that there is transparency in this process. There must be an understanding of what happened, accountability and, more, importantly, assurances that the events that happened will not happen again, either in Gorey or anywhere else. I am glad that a lot more precautionary boil water notices are being put in place. It is not very pleasant for people to be subject to such notices but I think they would rather receive notices than risk drinking water that is far from good quality.

At the time of the outbreaks, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, acted swiftly and ordered full inquiries. I was very happy with that. As part of that, he insisted on an audit of all the water treatment plants around the country, including the one in Gorey. The audit identified the changes that were necessary at Creagh. A commitment was given that there would quickly be an audit of the 20 largest water treatment plants in the country and that that would then be extended outwards because, of course, we have several hundred other treatment plants. One of the basic things any individual expects is that if they turn on their tap, they will have access to a good, reliable and clean water supply. I ask for an update on the audit of the 20 largest plants and where we stand regarding the audit of all the other plants.A clear indication was given to local authority and Irish Water staff that there would be refresher courses on this. I appreciate that the Minister of State cannot give an absolute guarantee that what happened before will never happen again. At the same time it is important for people in Gorey and others who have been affected that it be indicated clearly that everything is being done to ensure that lessons were learned from the events of last summer and that any discrepancies that have been picked up in Gorey and nationwide, are addressed.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I thank the Senator for bringing this matter forward as a Commencement matter. I addressed it previously, and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, also has addressed it previously. It is an unfortunate incident and unacceptable, that must be said. In regard to an update, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, met the managing director of Irish Water, as well as the chief executives of both Dublin City Council and Wexford County Council on 8 September 2021 to discuss the incidents at Ballymore Eustace and Gorey water treatment plants and held a follow-up meeting on 13 October 2021. In those meetings the Minister requested Irish Water to undertake immediately a number of improvements, including audits of the water treatment plants throughout the country. In November 2021, Irish Water provided an update to the Minister. While initially prioritising the largest 20 treatment plants, the list was expanded to the top 25 water treatment plants to cover the largest for both population served and output volume. With the addition of the Gorey plant this resulted in the top 26 water treatment plants being assessed. These plants serve approximately 65% of Irish Water's customer base.

During late September and early October last year, Irish Water completed the following: audits of the top 26 plants, which entailed evaluating the existing alarms and incident responses within the plants along with the applicability of shutdown procedures; site staff training at these plants; and the initiation of corrective actions based on the findings of the audits. In addition to these actions Irish Water has subsequently provided technical specialist support on site to these top 26 sites and has rolled out incident management refresher training across all local authorities. In January 2022 Irish Water established its national operations management centre. This centre receives data from the top 26 water treatment plants via a national telemetry system, thereby allowing Irish Water to monitor critical alarm signals on a 24-7 basis. The coverage of this central monitoring by Irish Water will be expanded to other water treatment plants on a phased basis. In addition, Irish Water has undertaken to issue critical standard operating procedures to the top 26 plants during January 2022 and to complete works on these sites to deliver water quality assurance works.

To conclude, Irish Water, local authorities and their staff have responded to the serious incidents at Gorey and Ballymore Eustace by putting in place a range of measures to provide greater assurance around the management of our water treatment plants including 24-7 monitoring of plants that serve the majority of the population. It will be important to continue to monitor the effectiveness of these measures as Irish Water continues along its evolution to become a fully integrated company with full control over its own staffing resources. It is important, as the Senator said, that we learn lessons from these incidents. There were serious public health breaches that we must ensure will never happen again. In regard to the point the Senator made in regard to Wexford County Council's report, I agree that should be published for transparency purposes. All the outputs of the investigations into what happened should be publicly available for elected Members, the wider public, Irish Water and the local authorities to learn from the lessons of the mistakes on these two unfortunate incidents.

Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State. I welcome his stance and that of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. We were proactive in addressing this issue and we have seen progress from Irish Water as a result of the audit of those 26 water treatment plants. When will it be extended to all of the other water treatment plants, many of which serve smaller communities? I note that 35% of the population still has not experienced this audit. It is important for us to be able to guarantee to everybody in this country that they have access to a good, clean, reliable water supply. I appreciate that the Department will continue to monitor this and the lessons are learned. I welcome the Minister of State's commitment to full transparency about the events that happened last summer.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The point is well made about the further 35% of smaller water treatment plants that serve Irish Water customers. I will take that point back. It is important that there be a full audit of all water treatment plants because there is the potential for further incidents. There is potential for that in those smaller plants. Since the formation of this Government, one thing we have done is put in place record capital funding for Irish Water to be able to meet its water service delivery programme and to ensure as it is a basic human right that when people turn on their taps they have access to clean, potable water. From that point of view it is critically important that as a Government, we work with Irish Water to ensure it is delivering on that and once it moves into being a fully integrated company with full control of its own staffing, that will be an important aspect of that work. There is no doubt but there are lessons to be learned in this regard. It is important that there is transparency. All reporting of the incidents and what led to those incidents should be made available to Senators, elected Members, local authorities and to the public generally. I hope we will move on from this and learn our lessons and ensure that we have clean drinking water for everybody in this country.