Public trust in water supply 'damaged' after Gorey treatment plant problems

About 52 people in Gorey fell ill after a serious incident involving the water treatment plant.

A Wexford senator has said the recent incident at a Gorey water treatment plant has done “a lot of damage” to public trust in the water supply.

Malcolm Byrne said it was now essential that Irish Water and the county council rebuild that trust.

About 52 people fell ill in Gorey after a serious incident involving the water treatment plant there.

An incident arose at the plant when a power failure and a chlorine pump failure resulted in water leaving the plant and entering the public supply without the appropriate level of disinfection between August 19 and August 24.

This incident was not notified to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the HSE until August 26.

A second incident, at Dublin's Ballymore Eustace plant, which serves about 877,000 consumers in the greater Dublin area, was also reported.

Irish Water reiterated over the weekend that the “incidents have been rectified” and that the water supply from both plants is safe to drink.

Fianna Fáil senator Malcolm Byrne said when public representatives started raising concerns initially, some of them were downplayed by Irish Water and the council.

Mr Byrne said the incident impacted local people in a “big way” and that some people were seriously ill.

Some people lost time off work “and that’s a loss of wages”, he added.

Fianna Fáil Senator Malcolm Byrne said the incident impacted local people in a 'big way' and that some people were seriously ill. File picture

When asked about people potentially taking legal action, Mr Byrne said: “I can’t speak on their behalf but I can’t rule anything out.

“But I think it is fair to say that there were some people seriously impacted by this. You had people who were left in hospital for a number of days. It’s not a pleasant experience.” 

Mr Byrne said everyone could accept that there can be systems failures, “these things happen”.

“But I think it was the response to that by Irish Water and Wexford County Council that raises questions. And certainly there was a failure, apart from a failure of the system, there was a failure of communications.” 

He said anyone who fell ill should contact Irish Water with details about the problems they experienced.

Mr Byrne and local councillors from the Gorey area met with Irish Water representatives on Monday and they accepted that there had been a systems failure and a communications failure.

The delegation said it appreciated the apology from Irish Water, who agreed to meet again after an independent investigation is published.

Treatment plant audit

Following the incidents, Minister for Housing and Local Government Darragh O’Brien said an audit of water treatment plants across the country would take place.

Irish Water will prioritise the largest 20 treatment plants first.

Irish Water’s managing director Niall Gleeson apologised to customers on Saturday for the incidents.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland on Monday, Mr Gleeson said they first knew of the problem on August 26, at which point the council had resolved it.

He said they should have been informed when the issue happened and the failure in communication was being investigated.

Mr Gleeson said on Saturday that the utility “agrees with the minister and the EPA that both incidents are unacceptable”.