EU delegation finds quality of our water hard to swallow

THE quality of our drinking water is a little hard to swallow, a European report has found.

Compiled by an EU delegation which travelled here two months ago, after it received complaints about the quality of drinking water in Galway and Kilkenny, it accuses the Department of the Environment of not providing the public with safe drinking water and lacking the will to put things right.

And it criticises the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for siding with local authorities when complaints are made. It also castigates the EPA for delays of more than a year in issuing reports on the quality of water, even when contamination is found.