THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION Agency (EPA) has warned that “more action is needed” as many private water supplies are not being monitored.

The EPA has launched its 2025 report on drinking water quality in private water supplies.

There are around 370 private group schemes supplying drinking water to more than 194,000 people in rural communities across Ireland.

In addition to this, over 1,600 small private supplies are registered with local authorities, providing drinking water from their own wells to commercial and public activities, such as schools, crèches, nursing homes, hotels, camping sites and sports clubs.

However, the EPA has warned that drinking water quality in private supplies “continues to fall short of what’s achieved in our public water supplies”.

Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, EPA programme manager Noel Byrne said “many small private supplies are not registered and not monitored by local authorities”, which creates a “risk to public health”.

The EPA said there is an “urgent need for mandatory registration for businesses to supply water to consumers from a well”.

“If they’re not registered,” said Byrne, “they’re not being monitored by the local authority, and consumers have no assurance that the water is safe to consume.”

And while there are around 1,600 small private supplies registered with local authorities nationally, Byrne acknowledged that “this isn’t all of them”.

“Cork County Council being very proactive in registering their supplies, they’ve registered about 250 in the county of Cork,” said Byrne.

“But if you look at a similar rural county, such as Mayo, they have only 24 registered and that is a level of concern.”

Byrne said the “danger” is that there could be a contaminated water supply with E. coli in it.

E. coli is a bacteria that can cause mild infections, or serious illness, including kidney damage. 

While E. coli compliance in private group water schemes improved significantly to 96.2% in 2025, up from 93.7% in 2024, this is still lower than public water supplies which consistently reach 98.6% compliance.

A total of 14 private group schemes supplying 1,854 people failed the standard last year, compared to 24 schemes in 2024 supplying 4,085 people.

Six schemes had repeat failures of E. coli in both 2024 and 2025.

Private Group Schemes with E.coli failures 2025 EPA EPA

Meanwhile, small private supplies continue to have poorer E. coli compliance than public water supplies provided by Uisce Éireann, with 67 supplies failing the standard in 2025 – a compliance rate of 95%. 

Elsewhere, 17 private group schemes failed to meet the Trihalomethanes (THM) standard, little improvement from 19 in 2024.

THMs are considered dangerous to both human health and the environment with high levels of THMs linked to diseases of the liver, kidney and central nervous system as well as bladder and colon cancer.

“People need to take drinking water quality seriously,” said Byrne.

“From our perspective, one person getting sick from contaminated water is one too many, but even that could be a family or even a community.”

Meanwhile, Byrne remarked that the Department of Housing is taking steps to change legislation to make it a mandatory requirement to register with a local authority.

However, he said the EPA would “like to see this delivered quicker”.

He added: “But a lot of this comes back to the supplier.

“A business in a rural community, they have their own well, and they’re providing water to consumers. They need the assurance that their water is safe for their consumers to consume.

“Ultimately, they should register themselves because it’s the right thing to do, and I say to any consumers out there, if you’re in doubt, just ask the owner: ‘Is this water supply on a well? Is it tested?”