Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)
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Question 12: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if in view of the contamination of the public water supply in Galway he will immediately introduce new regulations requiring increased monitoring and testing of public water supplies in all areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13441/07]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Regulatory regimes have been in place for many years in Ireland prescribing strict EU based standards for drinking water quality and monitoring. Reports on Irish drinking water quality are regularly compiled by the EPA and are regarded as among the most comprehensive within the EU. In its latest (2002) Synthesis Report on the Quality of Drinking Water in the Member States of the European Union, the EU Commission identified Ireland and the United Kingdom as the two member states in which improvements in drinking water quality were significant and obvious. The latest relevant EPA report verifies the high quality of Irish drinking water, with 98.9% of public supplies being in compliance with all microbiological standards.

The Drinking Water Regulations 2000 consolidated and updated earlier regulations, and they transposed the 1998 EU Drinking Water Directive and prescribed drinking water standards and monitoring regimes to meet the requirements of this Directive.

On 8 March 2007, prior to the Cryptosporidium outbreak in Galway City, I made the European Communities (Drinking Water) Regulations 2007 to update and replace the 2000 Regulations. In particular, the 2007 Regulations require local authorities to monitor all water supplies, under the supervision and direction of the Environmental Protection Agency, and to ensure that any non-compliance with quality standards is immediately investigated and appropriate remedial action taken.

I am satisfied that the new Regulations will underpin the provision of comprehensive monitoring regimes for all water supplies and that further detailed requirements can also be addressed when the Water Services Bill, now at Dáil Report Stage, is enacted.