Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)
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Question 276: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if there is an onus on statutory authorities to inform local residents or farmers on the issues of groundwater pollution, which affect water quality to local farms and local water supplies. [12705/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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In so far as the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is concerned, the main statutory authorities with responsibilities in respect of water quality are the Environmental Protection Agency and the local authorities.

The Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992 obliges the agency to create maintain databases of information about environmental quality, including the quality of groundwater, to disseminate such information and to provide for public access to it. Detailed information about the quality of drinking water in Ireland is available in reports published annually by the EPA. The reports, which are based on the results of monitoring conducted by local authorities, health boards and the EPA, indicate the extent to which drinking water supplies comply with prescribed quality standards. Comprehensive information about the quality of surface water and groundwater is available in reports published triennially by the EPA about water quality in Ireland.

Local authorities have statutory responsibility for supplying drinking water and upholding the quality standards prescribed by the European Communities (Drinking Water) Regulations 2000. The regulations require that information and advice be made available to consumers about various matters, including the prohibition or restriction of supplies which constitute a potential danger to human health, for example, in the case of a polluted groundwater source.

Persons who are concerned about the quality of water can seek advice from a supplier, a local authority, a health board, the EPA or an appropriate consultant or adviser. Information about accredited laboratories, other services available for sampling water and analysis of water samples under various parameters is available from local authorities, health boards and the EPA. Analysis of water samples can be conducted by local authorities or health boards which have appropriate in-house laboratory facilities, or can be arranged by such an authority on behalf of a householder at an accredited laboratory. Water samples can be submitted for analysis to the regional laboratories of the EPA, the Dublin city analyst's laboratory or other appropriate laboratory. The charges which will apply in respect of the provision of such services are matters for the service providers.