Minister’s remark over water contamination galls farmers

“A MISTAKE has been made and there certainly wasn’t the degree of urgency that should have been put into this issue,” was how Environment Minister Dick Roche explained away the blundering and mismanagement by local authorities which has left 90,000 householders boiling their water.

For farmers it was the most galling remark of the sorry affair which has left Galway residents comparing their situation to that of a third world country.

Farmers know that their slightest slip-ups are punishable by penalties, and can be interpreted as a criminal breach of regulations.