Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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80. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if the State has an obligation under Irish, EU or international law to remove lead pipes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4921/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Lead gets into drinking water when it dissolves from pipework and fittings that contain lead. Lead is harmful, concentrations should always be kept as low as practicable and strict legal limits apply to protect people's health.

The concentration limit for lead in drinking water is set by the European Union Drinking Water Directive. This is transposed into Irish Law through the European Union (Drinking Water) Regulations. The recently adopted recast of the Drinking Water Directive (EU 2020/2184) will progressively reduce the legal limit for lead from 10 μg/l to 5 μg/l over a transitional period of 15 years.

The Government published the 'National Strategy to Reduce Exposure to Lead in Drinking Water' in June 2015. This strategy is to guide actions that will reduce people’s lifetime exposure to lead from drinking water to the lowest possible levels. The safest approach to protecting health is to remove lead from all pipework in the public network and from pipes within houses and buildings.

Irish Water has statutory responsibility for all aspects of public water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local levels, including the delivery of water services capital infrastructure, while the local authorities remain responsible for private water supplies.

Irish Water is responsible for dealing with lead in the public pipe network. In the period from 2014 to 2020 Irish Water has removed 35,666 lead service pipes. Irish Water is progressively removing all remaining lead pipes from the public water network over time.

Plumbing within a property boundary is the responsibility of the property owner. Based on the most current data, Irish Water estimate that 180,000 residential properties may have some lead pipework.

My Department has introduced a grant scheme to assist owners of premises connected to a domestic water supply with the costs of replacing lead piping or related fittings in homes. Information on how to apply for this grant is available on my Department’s website at the following link:

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