Cold water poured on lead pipe plan

Irish Water’s €370m plan to eradicate lead pipes from the public water system could be money down the drain as householders refuse to budge on fulfilling their end of the deal.

The utility has already begun pouring resources into removing the dangerous metal from public mains to safeguard against a wide range of illnesses and problems affecting fertility, development and mental health.

However, its own technical reports say the efforts will “not achieve significant benefits” if private householders do not replace the last section of pipe running through their garden and house.

At least 180,000 homes —and many public buildings, schools and hospitals — have drinking water running through lead pipes but a grant scheme to assist with replacing them has had only a handful of applicants and plumbers say they have had virtually no requests to carry out the work.

If householders cannot be persuaded to take action, the question of greatly ramping up grant assistance or carrying out the work directly for free will have to be considered — both options that would add massively to the cost.

Half the country’s local authorities, which administer the grant, responded to queries about the number of applications they received. Eleven had none while Cork City received one, Limerick and Galway had two each, and Dublin cCity had six.

That is despite grants covering 80% the cost of the work up to a maximum of €4,000 being available to households with an income of €50,000 or less, and 50% grants worth up to €2,500 for households with an income between €50,000-75,000.

The Association of Plumbing and Heating Contractors (APHCI) said its members had little or no inquiries about inspecting for or replacing lead pipes either under the grant scheme or independently.

“The feedback we’re getting is absolutely no, there is nobody asking to have lead pipes replaced,” said APHCI chairman Sean Giffney.

“People seem to take the view that they don’t really want to know. I don’t think they really appreciate the dangers.

“You can tell them anything about water pipes inside the house but don’t tell them anything about pipes outside. Nine times out of 10 they’ll have cobblelock driveways or tarmac or concrete and they don’t want you digging that up so they’d rather turn a blind eye.”

Irish Water said exposure to lead posed “serious health risks”, particularly for children, and EU regulations imposed strict limits on its levels in drinking water.

Its draft Lead in Drinking Water Mitigation Plan warns that replacing pipes on the public side alone “will not solve the problem”.

“This strategy will not be effective to reduce lead concentrations in drinking water at customer taps.”

While Irish Water has been advising householders in homes built up to 1980 to check for lead pipes, Mr Giffney warned that an internal inspection may not suffice.

“You find houses where the pipes were replaced but only up to a foot or two inside the property boundary because people didn’t want their garden wall damaged,” he said. “That would have been quite normal through the 1980s.

“So even if Irish Water comes now and replaces the pipes to the public stopcock, there’s still an old section left between the stopcock and the homeowner’s newer pipes. That’s enough to keep the lead going into the water.”