Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has said mistakes by local authority management in Galway are responsible for the drinking water contamination crisis there.
Speaking on RTÉ's Todayprogramme, Mr Roche said he had offered resources to help deal with the cryptosporidium outbreak, and that he did not understand why clean water was not being delivered to households at this stage.
"I think there were some catastrophic management errors in Galway over the years. . . . I think that there was a serious problem with the operation of the Terryland plant," Mr Roche said.
"But as in every other local authority, to be fair to the current people who are in place, they weren't necessarily in place a few years ago."
He agreed that if no one was held accountable, the same thing could happen again in other local authority areas.
The water crisis is now in its fifth week, with tens of thousands of people forced to boil their tap water as a result of contamination by the cryptosporidium parasite. There have been at least 100 cases of gastric illness due to the contamination.
Residents of Galway city will be allowed to buy two bottles of water for the price of one as part of a plan to provide clean drinking water.
But the local authority has rejected councillors' calls to provide the water free of charge, claiming it would not be logistically possible.
At the end of March, Mr Roche announced a €48.4 million plan to alleviate the water contamination crisis in Galway city and county. The package includes a commitment 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 to allow for additional water to be made available to Galway city in the longer term.