Call for inquiry into Dublin's water quality as boil-water notice re-issued

A Green Party MEP is calling for the Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy to order an inquiry into water quality in the greater Dublin area.

Last night,

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Irish Water expects the notice to be in place for a number of days after heavy rain affected water quality at the Leixlip Treatment Plant.

The utility said that due to heavy rain, turbidity in the source water for the old Leixlip Plant exceeded acceptable levels.

They added that plant operators reacted quickly before alarms were activated and shut down the old plant to stop this water entering the network.

Turbidity is cloudiness in water due to suspended particles.

MEP Ciarán Cuffe wants Mr Murphy to establish an inquiry to look into the agencies responsible.

"I think he should look at the competencies within all three organisations," said Mr Cuffe.

"Are we losing a lot of senior staff? Do we have people with the right qualifications overseeing the production of water in the Leixlip plant?

"Or have we simply lost out on a level of competency with retirement and with changes in personnel?"

Meanwhile, TDs will be told today that several alarms at the Leixlip plant “were not responded to”, leading to the country's largest-ever boil water notice last month.

The Oireachtas Housing Committee will tomorrow hear evidence from Irish Water, the Environmental Protection Agency and Fingal County Council as to how the catastrophic failure first occurred last month.