The persistent failure to ensure Irish drinking water meets EU standards, notably in rural areas, has resulted in the European Commission deciding to proceed with a legal action against the Government in the European Court.
The case is to go ahead despite intensive efforts by the Department of the Environment, particularly since last November, to address the problem of the pollution of 42 per cent of group schemes supplying 160,000 Irish households. Tighter regulations and an investment package of £420 million under the National Plan have been announced.
If infringement proceedings go against Ireland, as is likely, it could result in substantial fines as breaches date back to 1985. Under the drinking water directive, Ireland and other EU member-states should have ensured by 1985, zero levels of bacteria indicating sewage contamination. These include "faecal coliforms" such as E.coli in drinking water.
The Commission has cited "widespread persistent microbiological pollution of group water supplies" in the Irish context, while the latest Environmental Protection Agency figures show 80 per cent of defective schemes are contaminated by faecal bacteria.
The EU's Environment directorate general recently sought an evaluation of these water quality results in preparation for the lodgement of papers in court. The main complainant, Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE), has also been asked to submit final documentation.
A senior Commission source confirmed "the case is going to court" and in the meantime, he said, it was hoped the Government would use the time "to make serious inroads into the problem". This would be crucial to mitigating the size of any fines.
What is a significant public health risk, allied to problems with public supplies and evidence of deteriorating river and lake water quality, it is understood, added to the Commission's concerns. While it was accepted the Minister, Mr Dempsey, had put the issue higher up the agenda, the absence of strategic county water plans and action programmes for individual supplies was noted, the Commission source said, because it would take years to rectify the problem even if they were in place.
Mr Dempsey has acknowledged the scale of the problem and said "source protection and precautionary water disinfection facilities" were central to his Department's rural water programme over the past three years. A spokesman for Mr Dempsey said he has made it clear to group scheme operators they "must shape up or ship out", and let local authorities take over if they could not meet the standards.
While Mr Dempsey had outlined "key responses" to the Commission after indications in January of possible court action, FIE has submitted to Brussels that these did not satisfy the terms of the directive.
There was an absence of a time-scale for compliance with the directive and failure to clarify issues of liability with the operation of group schemes, FIE said. Requirements introduced by the Government were for "improvement" not compliance.
