I propose to take Questions Nos. 59 and 558 together.
Information on the quality of drinking water supplies is regularly compiled and provided by the Environmental Protection Agency. The latest relevant EPA report The Quality of Drinking Water in Ireland — A Report for the Year 2005, which is available in the Oireachtas Library, confirms the fundamentally good quality of drinking water supplies in Ireland. The report shows that public water supplies have an overall compliance rate of 98.9% with bacteriological standards.
Management of public drinking water supplies is generally the responsibility of the local authorities, which have a range of instruments and measures available to them to produce and conserve sufficient stocks to meet anticipated needs and to ensure quality standards. In addition, my Department coordinates and finances a major programme of investment in improved water supply infrastructure, active leakage control, telemetry and rehabilitation of watermains. The Water Services Investment Programme 2005–2007, and previous phases of the Programme, are available in the Oireachtas Library.
The schemes included in the Water Services Investment Programme are derived mainly from regular assessments of needs undertaken by local authorities, at my Department's request, as an input to the overall strategy for meeting water supply and treatment requirements. Local authorities were requested to carry out new assessments in 2006 and these will inform project selection in the next phase of the Programme. In undertaking their assessments, authorities were asked to have regard to specific criteria, including relevant national and EU environmental, public health and drinking water quality statutory requirements and standards.
Contamination of drinking water by cryptosporidium is an ongoing risk in relation to which water authorities in Ireland and other countries must exercise constant precaution and vigilance. In 1998, my Department published detailed guidelines for local authorities on Minimising the Risk of Cryptosporidium in Water Supplies. These guidelines were prepared in consultation with the Department of Health and Children and the Environmental Protection Agency to provide clear advice to local authorities on preventing cryptosporidium getting into water supply systems. The guidelines cover all aspects of water supply management, including source protection, monitoring, treatment processes, storage and distribution as well as responding to an outbreak.
In November 2004, the National Disease Surveillance Centre published a report on waterborne cryptosporidiosis. This was circulated to all local authorities by the EPA with the request that they update their risk assessments based on the revised methodology of the report. Almost 400 such updated risk assessments were carried out by local authorities in response to this request.
Explicit requirements in relation to monitoring of drinking water for clostridium perfringens — an indicator of possible contamination of the water by cryptosporidium — are now set out in the European Communities (Drinking Water) Regulations 2007. My Department's Water Services Investment Programme provides full capital funding for improvements of the water infrastructure of local authorities. Identified deficiencies posing relatively greater risk to human health or the environment would be prioritised in this context.
The overall Exchequer commitment to water services infrastructure is reflected in the very substantially increased funding provided for the sector in recent years. Some €3.7 billion was invested in new and upgraded water services infrastructure under the National Development Plan 2000 — 2006. €4.7 billion, an increase of 27%, has been provided under the National Development Plan 2007-2013. Very significant improvements across the sector are being achieved on foot of this ongoing investment, including substantial increases in water treatment and storage capacity. Overall, the resources being put in place by my Department will ensure that the coverage and quality of the national water supply infrastructure is adequate to meet current and anticipated demands.
