Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has described the delay in upgrading the water treatment plant in Galway that is now the centre of a scare over contaminated drinking water as "extremely unsatisfactory".
Galway City Council has had funding allocated from his Department for the last five years for the upgrade of the Terryland water treatment plant, the Minister told the Dáil this evening.
Dick Roche, Minister for the Environment
Mr Roche was critical of Galway City Council over the contamination by the cryptosporidiosis parasite, which has hit up to 125 people and may have put up to 90,000 homes and businesses at risk.
Mr Roche said Galway City Council had had access to €21.5 million for the upgrade of the Terryland treatment plant for the past five years and that formal proposals for the scheme were still awaited by his Department.
The Minister described the situation as "extremely unsatisfactory".
He said he will visit Galway tomorrow to ask for an explanation of why there has not been more urgent treatment of the issue. He will also discuss the local authority's plan to put in place an interim water supply from another source within the next week, he said.
Galway City Council would submit a brief to employ consultants on the upgrade of the Terryland plant "as soon as possible". "It can't be soon enough in my view," he said.
Earlier today, Mr Roche said he was "very frustrated and annoyed that it has taken this length of time to get the first preliminary reports up to the Department".
"We're about to go into the season when Galway becomes a very important tourist Mecca so there is a huge amount resting on this issue. It will take some time to get a new waste treatment plant built and we have to resolve the matter in the interim."
"A mistake has been made and there certainly wasn't the degree of urgency that should have been put into this issue. What we must do now is ensure that the urgency is injected into it," he added.
"I don't want to get into the blame game. Resources will solve the problem. There have been crises in other areas of the country where there have been breakdowns from time to time. Water tankers go in and emergency supplies are provided.
"We have to provide the solutions to this particular problem to families in Galway, and to businesses in Galway who must be tearing their hair out at this stage in the year," he told RTE radio.
Galway West TD Michael D Higgins of the Labour Party, who had submitted a private notice question on the water crisis, said in the Dáil it was important that the people of Galway, arising from the Minister's visit tomorrow, get "some clear answers". He said the situation was "unsatisfactory" and that there was a considerable problem about trust, about information and about when the problem with the water supply was first discovered.
The debate is continuing in the House this evening.
Mayor of Galway Niall O Brolchain told Minister in a letter last night he must take a "hands-on approach" to deal with the drinking water contamination crisis in the city.
Mr O Brolcháin, a member of the Green Party, sent a five-point plan of action suggesting ways to solve the two-week crisis, which has seen the cryptosporidiosis parasite infect Galway city water supplies and and part of the county.
The mayor demanded that free clean drinking water be supplied for the areas affected by the outbreak, that efforts be intensified to locate the sources of cryptosporidium and close them off immediately and that medium-term water treatment measures be put in place.
The Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) issued warnings to all its members within the contaminated zone to put guests on alert.
Meanwhile, the deputy mayor of Clare, Brian Meaney claimed the people of Clare are set to face the same water bug outbreak as a cautionary 'boil notice' has been in place for two years, warning those with low immune systems not to drink tap water. He accused the Government of "total indifference" on the issue.