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Mr. Eoghan Murphy, Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government, welcomed publication of the Environmental Protection Agency’s ‘Drinking Water Report for Public Water Supplies 2017’. The report presents the EPA findings on the quality and management of 883 public drinking water supplies operating in 2017 and is based on the EPA’s assessment of approximately 170,000 test results reported to them by Irish Water during the year. 

The report highlights the general good standard of drinking water that is in place for the vast majority of public water supplies in Ireland and it recognises the ongoing progress by Irish Water in reducing the number of supplies on the EPA Remedial Action List (RAL).

However, the report also identified a number of priority areas for action, including the level of disinfection by-products (THMs) in drinking water, persistent pesticide failures in a small number of supplies and the significant number of lead pipe connections in properties.

Minister Murphy said,

It is heartening to note the progress that has been made by Irish Water in tackling the challenges facing our public water supply system. Boil water notices have declined dramatically and the number of supplies on the RAL continues to decline.

A key challenge for Irish Water, in addition to maintain high public water quality, will be to maintain and upgrade an infrastructure that is old and deficient in many places. Allied to this, is a wider challenge to make continued progress on reducing leakage and improving water conservation.

The Minister emphasized that while significant progress has been made, it is clear that we are still dealing with the result of historic under-investment in our water infrastructure over many years.  Significant investment and action will be needed to ensure that households, businesses, agriculture and industry have clean and wholesome drinking water into the future.