MINISTER FOR THE Environment Eamon Ryan has said no one in Ireland should have to buy bottled water as a result of water quality issues. 

He made the comment in the context of water quality issues in Cork City.

During Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil today, People Before Profit TD for Cork, Mick Barry said some households are spending €1,000 a year on bottled water in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis because of the problem.

Barry said there is a “water crisis” in Cork City that has affected thousands of homes in the last 18 months.

“The issue is dirty, discoloured water. Brown water, orange water, dirty, discoloured water coming from the taps,” Barry said.

According to statistics from Irish Water, on nine separate weeks in the last 18 months, complaints from the public in Cork were more than 10 times the number usually expected. 

Barry said the problem began when a private contractor working for Irish Water added too much caustic soda to the water in an effort to soften it. 

He said this led to a stripping of the old pipes which flushed “decades of sediment” into the water supply and that this led to damage of household appliances like washing machines and dishwashers. 

Barry said Irish Water advised households to let the water run clear and that it was safe to drink, but that households now want the water to be tested at source. 

“It’s a fiasco. If it had gone on for a couple of weeks or a couple of months it would be bad enough, but it has gone on for 18 months now, without an end in sight,” Barry said.

He asked Minister Ryan if he will tell households that what happened is “completely unacceptable” and asked if he will outline a timeline for the resolution of the problem. 

Ryan said yes on both fronts and said the problem has to be resolved and assessed by the EPA.

“Irish Water have to resolve this issue and be fully transparent in terms of what happened.

“If cloudy water is coming through someone’s tap that’s totally unacceptable,” he said. 

“We should not have any situation in the country where people have to buy bottled water. And that requires investment, it requires €1.5b in investment from the taxpayer.”