Unregistered and untested drinking water supplies are putting public health at risk through a loophole that allows them escape monitoring, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said.
A category of water source known as “small private supplies” serves many premises including schools, creches, bars, hotels, nursing homes and sports clubs from private on-site wells.
There is no legal obligation to register them and if they are not registered, they avoid local authority inspections.
The EPA said 1,600 were registered but it estimated that “many more” were not.
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“It is unacceptable that people visiting a local business or using local amenities could unknowingly consume water from a well that is not registered or sampled, putting themselves and their family’s health at risk,” said Pat Byrne of the EPA’s office of environmental monitoring.
The EPA’s concern is borne out by testing of small private supplies that are registered.
“Small private supplies continue to have poorer E.coli compliance than public water supplies provided by Uisce Éireann,” its latest report on the sector found.
Last year 67 of tested supplies failed the E.coli standard, leaving customers and clients exposed to potentially serious gastrointestinal illness.
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“Suppliers should act immediately and register their supplies, so they are monitored by local authorities, giving suppliers and consumers confidence in the quality of their drinking water,” Byrne said.
The EPA also raised concerns about the safety of water in private group schemes that serve almost 200,000 people in 376 mainly rural communities.
Last year 14 schemes, supplying almost 2,000 people, had E.coli failures – six of them for a second year.
Another 17 schemes serving just over 19,000 people failed the test for Trihalomethane, a chemical compound linked to cancer.
Byrne said the figures improved from 2024 but he was concerned about repeat failures in some schemes.
“Local authorities must work closely with suppliers to identify the causes of failures and ensure corrective actions are put in place,” he said.
“Where suppliers do not act, or where failures persist, local authorities must escalate enforcement action, so consumers are protected.”
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The EPA stressed that suppliers of water, in private group schemes or small private supplies, were legally responsible for ensuring its safety.
“Supplying unsafe water is an offence and puts consumers at risk of illness,” it said.
But the agency also highlighted Government failure to address “a gap in the legislation”, where providers of small private supplies were asked to register with their local authority but not legally obliged to.
“The Department of Housing in 2023 identified the need to strengthen the governance, oversight and management of private water supplies. Progress on implementing measures to address this deficit has been slow. The department must implement these reforms as a priority,” it said.
