Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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921. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will ensure that all households with a water supply contaminated by trihalomethanes are exempted from water charges; his views that it is acceptable that homeowners are being exposed to long-term contamination by trihalomethanes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12145/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Regulation 13 of the European Union (Drinking Water) Regulations 2014, a copy of which is available in the Oireachtas library, requires all water suppliers to ensure that substances used in the preparation or distribution of water intended for human consumption, or impurities associated with such substances, do not, either directly or indirectly, reduce the protection of human health provided for in the Regulations. Regulation 13 also provides that water suppliers must take all measures necessary to ensure that the efficiency of disinfection treatment is verified and that any contamination from disinfection by-products, including trihalomethanes (THMs), is kept as low as possible without compromising the disinfection.

Under the above Regulations, suppliers of drinking water are required to ensure that the water supplied is wholesome and clean. Water which is wholesome and clean is defined as water which is free from any micro-organisms and parasites and from any substances which in numbers or concentrations constitute a potential danger to human health and which meets the quality standards specified in the Regulations.

The Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013 provides that Irish Water can collect charges from each customer in receipt of water services provided by it. The Act also provides that responsibility for the independent economic regulation of the water sector is assigned to the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) and the CER has been given statutory responsibility for protecting the interests of customers. The Water Charges Policy Direction issued to the CER in July 2014 referred to a number of matters relating to domestic water charges, including where the quality of water services provided by Irish Water to its customers is impaired or where services are reduced or restricted. Where customers are subject to a drinking water restriction notice, including where this is due to non-compliance with THM standards, affected customers will receive a 100% discount to the water supply portion of their bill for the duration of the restriction.

Irish Water has put in place measures to minimise potential THM breaches. These include the development of a THM formation potential monitoring programme, to evaluate the effects of critical individual parameters on THM formation, their interaction, correlation and variability, in order to identify high THM formation potential sources. This in turn will inform mitigation measures for the proposed modification/augmentation of treatment processes up stream of disinfection.