Water Supply and Sanitation in The Republic of Ireland

Water Supply And Sanitation In The Republic Of Ireland

This article was written in 2008 with some later updates, including in 2012. Please feel free to further update it, if need be.

Water supply and sanitation services in Ireland, in contrast to most countries in the world, are provided free of charge to domestic users since 1997. Only non-domestic users are billed for these services. The bulk of the costs of service provision is met from tax revenues transferred by the national government to local authorities, which are in charge of service provision. In December 2010 the government announced that it would reintroduce domestic water tariffs as part of its austerity measures. In January 2012 the Minister of Environment, Phil Hogan, announced a six-week consultation on a planned fundamental reform of the water sector. In addition to the introduction of metered domestic water tariffs, it is envisaged to create a new public utility, Irish Water, that would take over service provision from local authorities, and to introduce independent economic regulation through the Commission for Energy Regulation.

Water resources are abundant and 83% of drinking water comes from surface water. Despite this abundance, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government John Gormley warned in August 2008 that water shortages "will be a key issue that Ireland will have to grapple with in the future". In the absence of domestic tariffs and meters, domestic water use is slightly higher than in other European countries at 160 litre per capita per day.

The quality of water from the public mains is usually quite high. However, the poor microbiological quality of some rural private group water schemes is problematic, leading Ireland to be condemned by the European Court of Justice in 2002 for having failed to abide by EU drinking water guidelines. High levels of leakage and non-revenue water of 40-50% are also a concern. Concerning wastewater treatment, significant progress has been made and 82% of wastewater collected in sewers now receives at least secondary treatment.