Drinking water standards very good, says Taoiseach

Irish drinking water standards are very good, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has insisted. As Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny told the Dáil that "people in Galway now speak of having had a morning cryptosporidium shower", Mr Ahern pointed out that water standards "now stand at 97.6 per cent compliance with EU requirements".

He added that the European Commission "has identified Ireland and the United Kingdom as the two member states in which improvements in drinking water quality are significant and obvious".

Mr Ahern said he would not get involved "in the middle of local Galway politics", but he pointed out that "it is a fact that €21 million was provided over three years ago to allow the local authority" to implement a new water scheme for the city, but the council could not agree on the scheme. Speaking before the Dáil last night passed the four-year-old Water Services Bill, Mr Ahern insisted that the Department of the Environment "cannot be blamed because the money was allocated but was not spent".

The Water Services Bill requires local authorities to have a water plan similar to their development plans, and gives the EPA additional powers to ensure safe water delivery.

Mr Kenny criticised Minister for the Environment Dick Roche "with his smug approach to the problem" and claimed he had "hived off blame and responsibility to everyone else.

"The Government and its immediate predecessor did not have the political will to make the investment necessary to deal with this problem."

He said that there had been a €600 million deficit in spending on water services and it meant that "places like Oughterard, Headford, Clonbur and Claregalway have completely insufficient sewerage systems".

However, Mr Ahern said efforts would continue to trace the outbreak of the Galway water contamination. He added that the water supply from Tuam would be increased to augment the city supply and "the additional supply from this source will come on stream incrementally during the next two months.

"It was agreed that the old water treatment plant in Galway will be phased out" by mid-June and a water treatment plant, supplying 18 million litres a day, will come on stream before the end of the year.

The Government's investment over the period of the National Development Plan "has delivered additional drinking water for a population equivalent to one million people", said Mr Ahern.