Labour Party president Michael D Higgins said the Government's plan to privatise water and sewerage services is at the heart of the row over Galway's contaminated water supply.
Mr Higgins said he believed the Department of the Environment had been stalling on allocation of EU and State funds for water and sewerage services to local authorities for this reason. His party intends to mount a "vigorous opposition" to the Water Services Bill, 2004, when it returns to the Dáil tomorrow, he said.
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has claimed Galway City Council failed to draw down €21 million to upgrade its water treatment works.
Mr Higgins said it was obvious the department was "encouraging" local authorities to follow a public-private partnership route in providing the essential services, under the guise of "value for money".
Last month Siptu raised this issue on world water day, when it initiated a campaign to keep water services in public ownership. Its national campaigns organiser, Anne Speed, said world consumption of water was set to double every 20 years, and yet water sources were being "polluted, diverted and depleted".
Some 150 people attended a protest outside Galway City Hall last night. They demanded free water supplies and called on city officials to host a public forum on the water pollution issue.
The latest laboratory-confirmed figure for cases of cryptosporidiosis is 195 since January, according to the Health Service Executive (HSE) West.
It has reiterated that the "boil water" notice will remain in place, and city officials hope to close the old Terryland waterworks and to draw alternative supplies from the Luimnagh (Tuam) waterworks by mid-June.
The group organising the protest said that some 1,700 city residents had signed its petition. It was also seeking free recycling facilities for the large number of plastic mineral water bottles which were building up since the boil water notice was issued on March 15th. The People Before Profit Water Crisis campaign has supported the calls, and says that compensation should be paid to those suffering from the illness as a result of contaminated water.
In an update, Galway City Council director of services Ciaran Hayes said yesterday that the "buy one, get one free" scheme for subsidising mineral water had been extended, and the local authority was also working with voluntary groups to assist vulnerable people.
The Department of the Environment said yesterday the city council was free to use some of the €1.1 million it had allocated to it last week to provide water to the 90,000 affected people.
In a separate protest yesterday outside Galway County Hall, an estimated 250 people from Eyrecourt criticised the spreading of sewage sludge from Mutton Island treatment plant on land in their area.
Galway County Council director of services Jim Cullen said legal advice indicated the local authority had no power to stop the spreading of sludge once statutory provisions governing the practice were complied with.
Cllr Ciaran Cannon (PD) asked if it were true that the local authority had only tested the land twice to determine what nutrients were contained in the sludge. He said the practice had been banned in Switzerland, Germany and Denmark.Mr Cullen said it was up to the licensed operator and the landowner to test the land, and the council only undertook "sporadic" sampling.
