Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 17 Jun 2003

Vol. 568 No. 5

Written Answers. - Water Quality.

Thomas P. Broughan

Ceist:

118 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the recent report from the European Environment Agency which found that Ireland's drinking water quality is among the most contaminated in Europe; the steps being taken to address this situation and ensure that all people have access to safe, clean drinking water; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16497/03]

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Mr. Gallagher)

Statutory responsibility for the provision of drinking water supplies and for upholding the prescribed quality standards rests with local sanitary authorities. Stringent drinking water standards are prescribed by the European Communities (Quality of Water Intended for Human Consumption) Regulations 1988. The duty placed on sanitary authorities to take the necessary measures to ensure that drinking water meets these standards is performed under the general supervision of the EPA.

The figures in relation to compliance with the faecal coliforms standard used in the European Environment Agency report are from 1995. Since then there have been improvements in the compliance of Irish drinking water supplies with the standard. It is emphatically not the case that Ireland's drinking water is among the most contaminated in Europe. The European Environment Agency report does not contain data which enables comparisons to be made between Ireland and other European countries. In relation to Ireland the report includes data for all sampled drinking water supplies. This covers small and large public supplies, private group water schemes and individual private wells. In relation to other countries the report contains data in relation to public supplies only and, in many cases, only to large public supplies.

Ireland is exceptional in terms of full, open and transparent reporting on the quality of its drinking water. The EPA publishes a report annually on the quality of drinking water in Ireland, and a copy of the report for 2001 is available in the Oireachtas Library. The report is based on the results of some 146,000 individual tests on over 22,000 samples of drinking water taken from 2,440 supplies. The report confirms the fundamentally good quality of Irish drinking water with an overall compliance rate of 94.3% with prescribed standards for all supplies, based on 14 principal parameters. It also indicates improvements in the compliance rate for the faecal coliforms parameter which, in public supplies, was up from 96.7% to 97.2% and, in group schemes, was up from 70.8% to 74.1%. Following on from recommendations made in previous years, documented procedures are in place or in preparation by a number of authorities to respond to detected breaches of quality standards. Future reports will highlight the extent to which deficiencies identified in EPA audits have been addressed.

Ongoing investment by my Department in the development and upgrading of water supply infrastructure is intended to maximise compliance with prescribed quality standards. The National Development Plan 2000–2006 provides for investment amounting to some €1.3 billion on major water supply schemes, and the Water Services Investment Programme 2002-04 includes 218 public water supply schemes.

Water quality deficiencies in group water schemes are mainly confined to those schemes which are dependent on private sources, including rivers, lakes and boreholes. The schemes involved serve some 50,000 rural households. Since March 2000, all of these schemes are eligible for a 100% grant for the installation of water disinfection and treatment equipment. To ensure the most cost effective delivery and operation of such equipment, and secure the long-term protection of the related capital investment, procurement policy in the group sector is, in common with small public schemes, based on design, build, operate contracts, coupled with the grouping of numbers of schemes under a single contract. My Department recently produced a comprehensive procurement guidance document to assist local authorities and group schemes in the implementation of this policy. The EPA report acknowledges and welcomes the extensive Government response to problems in this sector.

In February of this year, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government announced details of a record €100 million in funding to be spent this year on a systematic programme to address quality problems affecting rural water supplies. An allocation of €78 million is being made to county councils by way of block grants. The balance of €22 million will be spent on measures such as the single house well grant, €5 million approximately, subsidies towards the operational cost of group water schemes, €7 million approximately, piloting of new wastewater treatment systems for small rural villages, €4 million, strategic rural water planning, €1 million, county council administration costs, €4 million, monitoring of rural water quality, €750,000, and grants to the national federation of group water schemes, €506,000. This is almost a 50% increase in capital spending planned for 2003 by comparison to last year, and a tenfold increase since 1996.

A comprehensive group water scheme monitoring programme commenced in October 2002. Under this programme drinking water in the estimated 1,500 group schemes coming within the remit of the new drinking water regulations will be sampled and analysed. I have also appointed consultants to assist in the establishment of a drinking water national monitoring programme. This will put in place a comprehensive, harmonised and uniform system of sampling, testing and reporting to assist compliance with the new regulations.