A NEW outbreak of the illness caused by drinking water contamination has occurred on the west coast, with three cases of cryptosporidium reported in north Clare.
Three young children, all under the age of five years, have been infected by the illness in the Ennis area of Co Clare, and one has been hospitalised.
The cases come just four days after Minister for the Environment John Gormley said the cryptosporidium contamination that affected the supply for 90,000 people in Galway city and county last year should "never happen again".
Minister of State for the Environment Tony Killeen told The Irish Times yesterday it was too early to say whether the Ennis cases were linked to the public water supply. He was speaking in Co Galway at the publication of the Government's €135 million upgrade of rural water supplies, which took place in Claregalway.
A precautionary "boil tap water" notice has been in place in Ennis since May 2005, when the parasite that causes serious gastro-intestinal illness was found in the public supply.
Contamination with e.coli was discovered in the Ennis supply in late January, and more than 30,000 residents in the town and surrounding villages were advised not to drink water without boiling, and to boil for food preparation and teeth brushing.
A permanent water treatment plant is under construction in Ennis, and a temporary membrane filtration unit was put in place in June 2006.
Clare County Council, Ennis Town Council and the Health Service Executive Mid-West reaffirmed their advice yesterday that tap water should be boiled for people who were immuno-compromised, for infants, pre-school children and visitors to the area.
Outlining details of the €135 million Claregalway upgrade, Mr Killeen said more emphasis had to be placed on "source protection" and it was "not too late" to address this issue. "If we have source protection, whether it be from agriculture, industry or housing developments, everything else flows from that."
Mr Killeen said the Government had identified addressing water quality problems as a "top priority", and the new programme would maintain progress in upgrading 728 privately-sourced group water schemes to ensure compliance with drinking-water regulations. A contingency sum of €10 million has also been earmarked by his department for "certain public water supplies with potential quality issues".
These had been identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in its recent report, published in January, which said that 36 per cent of public water supplies indicate persistent problems, which must be eradicated to prevent recurring incidents of pollutants such as cryptosporidium or E.coli. It said the situation with private group water schemes was serious and directed local authorities to assess their water services. Galway City Council is carrying out an independent review of its cryptosporidium outbreak.