Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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334. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of identified private water supplies; the efforts made to ensure their safety; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23281/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Private water supplies are those supplies not operated by Irish Water and includes group water schemes, small private supplies and individual private water supplies, otherwise known as individual household wells.

Under the European Union (Drinking Water) Regulations 2014, as amended (“the Regulations”), local authorities must maintain a register to record the details for each water supply for which it is a supervisory authority.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) supervises the performance by Irish Water and each local authority of their monitoring functions under the Regulations. The EPA produces annual reports that provide an overview of both the quality and enforcement activity concerning private water supplies, including information on the numbers of supplies. The most recent relevant EPA reports are Focus on Private Water Supplies 2019, and Drinking Water Quality in Public Supplies 2019.

Local authorities, in their role as supervisory authority under the Regulations, are responsible for ensuring that all regulated private supplies meet their regulatory requirements. This includes the monitoring of compliance of these supplies, investigation where water quality standards are not met and taking enforcement action if appropriate.

In addition, where a local authority is aware of a potential danger to human health from the quality of an “exempted supply”, as defined in the Regulations, it has an obligation to provide advice accordingly to the owners of such supplies. Exempted supplies are outside the scope of the monitoring requirements of the Regulations. It is the responsibility of the water supplier to ensure that the water they provide is safe to drink.

My Department is responsible for the formulation of policy and legislation in relation to water services including drinking water quality, and makes funding available to the private water sector through the Rural Water Programme. Further information on the Rural Water Programme can be found on my Department's website.

Funding is provided under the Rural Water Programme to support the National Federation of Group Water Schemes (NFGWS), a representative organisation for the community-owned group water scheme sector in Ireland. The NFGWS works with local authorities and individual group water schemes to identify and address ongoing water quality issues and risks.

As part of its revised Terms of Reference, the Rural Water Working Group, which was established in 2018, will consider the broader measures required to improve quality outcomes for private water supplies.