Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 308: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if the survey of houses with leaded connections carried out in 1996 demonstrated any level of non-compliance with the interim 2003 requirements of Council Directive 98/83/EC. [31180/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The limited 1996 sampling exercise in Dublin referred to in the reply to Parliamentary Question No. 541 of 11 October 2005 indicated that, depending on the sampling method employed, a range of between 6% and 12% of the properties sampled at that time would not have met the interim EU standard for the end of 2003. This finding is not likely to be more widely representative since lead water pipes only feature in older urban areas and many such pipes would have been replaced in the meantime. The most recent information on the monitoring of heavy metals in drinking water supplies, of which lead is one of a number monitored, is available in the Environmental Protection Agency's publication, The Quality of Drinking Water in Ireland — A Report for the Year 2003, with a review of the period 2001-2003, copy available in the Oireachtas Library. The EPA report indicates that 18,138 samples, were analysed for heavy metals in public water supplies and 2,154 in group water scheme supplies in 2003. The report reveals an almost 100% compliance rate in the case of all water supplies — with only five exceedances of the standard for lead in public water supplies and one exceedance in the group water scheme samples.