Since 1 January 2014, Irish Water has statutory responsibility for all aspects of 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.
Under the Drinking Water Regulations 2014, as amended, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the supervisory authority for water supplied by Irish Water. The EPA produces an annual Public Supply Drinking Water Report and Private Supply Drinking Water Report, which provides an overview of the quality of drinking water in public and private supplies. The reports are based on the assessment of monitoring results reported to the EPA by Irish Water and the Local Authorities, and on EPA and Local Authority enforcement activities.
The EPA's latest report 'Drinking Water Quality in Public Supplies 2019' published in July, shows that overall our water supplies are safe, with over 99% of water samples complying with safety limits.
While the quality of our drinking water supplies remains very high, the EPA has also set out the risks and challenges that remain. Many of these issues are long-standing and without Irish Water acting to address these issues, we would be in a worse situation.
The report demonstrates the work done in 2019 in key areas such as the National Disinfection Programme, removing THMs (Trihalomethanes), and Cryptosporidium risk assessments, which are vital to ensuring clean, safe drinking water throughout the country. By the end of 2019, Irish Water had assessed 811 of the 864 plants in the National Disinfection Programme and completed upgrades at 230 plants. Work is under way at a further 35 sites.
The report also shows Irish Water's progress in relation to reducing the number of supplies on the Remedial Action List (RAL). The EPA publishes on its website the RAL on a quarterly basis. At the end of July 2020, 52 supplies remain on the RAL which collectively supply water to 1,151,288 consumers.
In relation to the issue of lead, in 2017 Irish Water estimated that lead pipework exists in approximately 180,000 residential properties in Ireland. While there are no lead water mains in Ireland, service connections within properties can contain traces of lead. The vast majority of lead pipes are contained within properties built up to and including the 1970s.
Lead in drinking water is both the responsibility of water suppliers and property owners. Irish Water is responsible for lead pipework in the public water distribution network. This is known as public-side lead. Lead plumbing in buildings and within property boundaries is a matter for the property owner. This is known as private-side lead.
The Government published a National Strategy to Reduce Exposure to Lead in Drinking Water in June 2015. In response to the recommendations of this strategy, Irish Water prepared a detailed Lead in Drinking Water Mitigation Plan to identify measures to mitigate the risks to human health posed by the presence of lead in drinking water. The Plan proposes to remove all public lead service connection pipes over a ten year programme (i.e. by the end of 2026).
Irish Water have also put in place an interim water treatment programme to protect consumers from lead exposure while this replacement programme is implemented. According to the recent EPA report, Drinking Water Quality in Public Supplies 2019, by the end of 2019 17% of all public side lead connections had been replaced.
The Lead Mitigation Advisory Group, which is chaired by officials from my Department, meets regularly to consider and make recommendations on the broader Irish Water Lead Mitigation Strategy and to consider appropriate guidelines and criteria for Irish Water's decision-making process for lead mitigation measures. The most recent of these meetings took place on 23 September 2020.
The new Programme for Government sets out clear and ambitious commitments to ensure that Irish Water accelerates the resolution of schemes on the EPA's Remedial Action List; that lead pipe is removed from water supplies, that the formation of trihalomethanes (THMs) is minimised, and that Irish Water integrates the Drinking Water Safety Plan approach in order to fully protect our water supplies and to direct investment to priority areas.
Given the legacy of underinvestment in water services infrastructure in Ireland, the scale of remedial work necessary in our water system will take a number years and investment cycles to fully resolve. The Government has committed to ambitious funding of Irish Water's capital investment plans for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure on a multi-annual basis. The Government plans to deliver the €8.5 billion funding package committed to in Project Ireland 2040.
