Statement from Minister O’Brien on serious incidents in drinking water plants

The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien received a letter this week which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent to the Department about two serious incidents in recent weeks that occurred in drinking water plants serving parts of Dublin City (served by the Ballymore Eustace water treatment plant) and Gorey, Co. Wexford. This included, in the case of Gorey, illnesses detected by the HSE in the community served by that water supply.

In their letter, the EPA stated that an abject failure in management oversight, operational control and responsiveness at two public drinking water treatment plants had allowed unsafe water to enter into the public drinking water supply and endanger public health.

These incidents have been rectified and the water supply from the two plants is now safe to drink.

Commenting, Minister O’Brien said: “I find the failures identified by the EPA concerning and unacceptable – peoples’ safety is paramount. My officials have been in contact with the EPA and Irish Water on the issues raised and I have today spoken with the Managing Director of Irish Water as well as both the Chief Executives of Dublin City Council and Wexford County Council. My Department has received reports from Irish Water and the EPA and I have now also asked the two local authorities for an immediate report on the incidents. It is essential that all parties work together to put in place effective corrective actions to ensure a safe and secure water supply.”

He continued: “Irish Water and local authorities must ensure that all processes and procedures in place in relation to the proper management of our water treatment plants are followed to ensure effective communication, cooperation and joint response to any incidents. I have requested that Irish Water audit its water treatment plant operational arrangements as a matter of urgency and that each local authority provide Irish Water with open and uninhibited access to water treatment plants."

A meeting is to be held on Saturday.

Minister O'Brien said:

"I will be meeting with the Managing Director of Irish Water and both the Chief Executives of Dublin City Council and Wexford County Council tomorrow morning (Saturday 18 September 2021) to follow up on this and to consider what further steps are required to ensure our water supplies are safeguarded.

One of the first initiatives I advanced on taking office was to develop a Government Policy Paper on the steps required to transform Irish Water into a proper unified national water utility.

I progressed this precisely because of the type of issues that I saw emerging during the Leixlip incident in 2019.

The Policy Paper stated that despite owning the assets and paying for service delivery through service level agreements with local authorities, Irish Water did not have direct control over the majority of service staff or assets and that the separation between responsibility and control needed to be addressed as a priority. It made clear that while the current working arrangements with local authorities had worked effectively to get the Irish Water up and running, the limitations of this way of working were beginning to impact on service delivery and were increasingly seen as adding to the risk of service failure.

A process is underway in the WRC to deliver this transformation but I will be asking Irish Water and local authorities to take further steps to improve Irish Water control of all water service plants in the immediate term pending the implementation of the agreed longer term operational and staffing arrangements,” concluded Minister O’Brien.

ENDS