Minister for Environment Dick Roche has announced details of a €48.4m plan designed to alleviate the water contamination crisis in Galway city and county.
The announcement was made after Minister Roche met with the Mayor of Galway City, Niall Ó Brolcháin, the Mayor of Galway County, Michael Mullins and with senior officials from the HSE to discuss the current problems with water supply in the Galway City area.
Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche
The package includes a committment to speed up the development of the new Treatment Plant in Galway at a cost of over €21 million.
An additional €27.4 million has been allocated for increased storage and water conservation measures in Tuam which will allow for additional water to be made available to Galway City in the longer term.
Both local authorities will aim to reduce the impact on householders arising from the current water crisis and will continued efforts to identify the source of the outbreak.
In the short-term, water supply from the Tuam plant will be increased to augment the city supply, the additional supply from this source is expected to come on stream within a matter of weeks.
In the medium term, a water treatment Package Plant at Terryland which will provide 18 million litres per day which should come on stream before the end of the year.
Mr O Brolcháin said he regretted that it took a crisis such as this to bring about the urgent funding needed to secure a safe water supply.
But Green Party councillor said he was satisifed that the plan provides an adequate framework to tackle the problem and deliver clean drinking water to the people of Galway.
The Minister arrived in Galway this morning following calls for him to take a "hands-on" approach by Mr O Brolcháin.
Mr Roche said he was travelling to Galway to "knock a few heads together, to talk to the county council, to the city council, to the elected representatives to see what in the name of God they are going to do".
On his arrival, the Minister was barracked by Fine Gael and Labour Party councillors after they said they were excluded from an emergency meeting.
They accused him of participating in a "political charade" and of playing politics with the health of the people of Galway.
However, Mr Roche rejected the councillors' claims saying he was in the city "to discuss a very serious problem and to find solutions to it."
"I'm not interested in this political football that some people down here want to play. This matter should have been resolved. It's a major issue in a major city."
"If people want to play silly political games that's fine," he said.
A political row has also erupted over responsibility for the problem, with the Minister accusing the mayor of "not being fit" to hold office if he was not aware that some €21.5 million had been allocated to upgrade the city waterworks.
Mr Roche told the Dáil yesterday that funding has been available to Galway City Council for the past five years to upgrade its water supply system but that the Department of the Environment is still waiting for the council's formal proposals.
Mr Roche said: "I don't want to get into a blame game" but that other local authorities had made proposals and "drawn the money down" for their schemes. He added that "local government has very limited responsibilities and should exercise them to the full and not pass the buck".
Mr Roche says that the money for upgrading the water treatment works at Terryland was allocated in 2002 but not drawn down. Galway City Council says it has been working with the Department of Environment on proposals, which have been "advanced as far as possible".
The number of confirmed cases of cryptosporidiosis, the gastrointestinal illness traced to an infected water supply in the city and part of the county, now stands at 136, with up to 10 people hospitalised.
The parasite is also now being spread person-to-person, with traces in the water supply derived from both human sewage and animal faeces.