After recent negative news, are you happy to drink Irish tap water?

# 19

Posted: 29/03/2007 19:04

I have to replace my kettle at least 3 times a year because they continue to stop working due to the condition of the water. I don't mind the limescale in the water as to a point, its good for you, but its all the other crap that worries me.
Various colours of floating 'God knows what'. On the other side, I don't feel that confident about some of the bottled waters either because some of them are very high in calcium.
Who are these people who we collectively employ to treat our water and make sure it is fit to drink?
Why are people not held responsible for incompetence in providing safe drinking water. We only have just over 4 million people in this country, we are continually patting ourselves on the back for our so called Celtic Tiger economy but as far as I can see, we are still 3rd world in more than a few areas.

# 18

Posted: 29/03/2007 18:21

i have always drunk tap water rather than buying expensive botled water which is suposed to be pure but has been found to have quite a lot of sodium in them. until i am told otherwise i will continue to drink tap water

# 17

Posted: 29/03/2007 17:09

In Booterstown, Co. Dublin, 30 years ago the water looked, smelled and tasted O.K. About 10 years ago, it developed a bad odour, colour and taste. For a few years after that I used a filter system , but after further research I concluded that the filter would not remove the single cell bacteria I suspected was the cause of the problems. Now I use bottled water only. Also, we have a problem with the water pressure in recent years. Possibly, there may be a connection here ?

# 16

Posted: 29/03/2007 15:03

The flouride debate which is side-lining this issue, totally aside, I use filtered water as I just prefer it. I boil tap water obviously for tea and cooking and use bottled water for drinks.
I'm in the Navan and while the water quality is ok, I just don't like the taste.
However when we lived in Dublin in the 90's the water tasted awful and smelled of chemicals.
Bottled water is not expensive to buy and the filter only costs about €6 or 7 per month.

# 15

Posted: 29/03/2007 14:28

Re Marion being shocked about mass medicating everyone with fluoride, does she know that this 'medicine' has never been authorised by the Irish Medicines board as is therefore illegal? It is not likely that the chemical -- fluosilicic acid -- will be licensed any time soon since it is an industrial waste product from phosphate production and comes with arsenic, lead and other nasties. And boiling the water only increases the concentration. The American Dental Association has advised not to use fluoridated water in infant formula because of the risk of dental fluorosis. Still happy with Irish tap water?

# 14

Posted: 29/03/2007 14:26

Years ago when our children were younger we used to drink tap water. Baby bottles of formula milk we made from the boiled tap water. Unfortunately, within the last few years I don't find it safe to give it to our dog. When I bath our children it is often a yellow-brown colour and there can be black particles floating around in a glass of water. I spend on average €10 more on my shopping buying water which is a disgrace as for a few years we lived in New York and with the vast population and demand for water it was perfectly fine to drink. With so much of it coming from the sky in this country, I find it hard to understand how after 10 days of dry weather in Summer, we will hear on the radio to limit our water consumption or else they will just cut it off. Make sense of that?

# 13

Posted: 29/03/2007 14:19

A lot of mention about Galways poor water in the news at the moment. Not a mention of the fact that Ennis people have had to put up with very poor water quality for the last 5 years. A total disgrace that people in clare have to buy bottled water.

# 12

Posted: 29/03/2007 14:05

Back in 2005 we had the same water problem here in Roscommon and it took just over a month for the boil water notice to be lifted. It didn't make the same kind of news nationally as the current situation in Galway but I remember that there have also been other areas affected by this parasite in recent years as well. I saw a headline earlier this month that 55% of Irish waste water is untreated and now in Galway the water is contaminated with both animal & human waste! I do not drink the tap water, preferring a boiling hot cup of tea. The thing is, after Galway is sorted out where will be hit next?

# 11

Posted: 29/03/2007 12:45

Bad news for the bottlies - chances are that it is tap water anyway. Yep, one of the ugly secrets of the trade is that, while the ads don't lie (underground for 10,000 years, from ancient springs etc), a lot of bottled water comes to you from those ancient springs via a tap and a municipal water supply. However, it has had sufficient time to absorb a goodly amount of phthalates (nasty stuff that makes plastics useable) while sitting in the ever-natural plastic bottle that you buy it in. Phthalates we know are bad for you, but yiz pays yer money and yiz take yer chances. Me? I'm sticking to whiskey - apparently it kills the Galway bug.

# 10

Posted: 29/03/2007 12:11

I used to always drink tap water and could not understand why people would pay for water when we already pay enough to get safe drinking water provided. B ut a recent deterioration in both the pressure and taste of our mains water together with the recent and ongoing bad water quality throughout the country (Blessington and Ennis have had problems for a long time now) has made me change to bottled water as I just do not trust those in charge to ensure our water is safe any more - not sure about the quality of bottled water either so that it not the real answer - thought of installing a water filter on my mains tap but heard people are being ripped off - charged very high prices and still not getting sufficient filtration to remove all the bad guys so for now will reluctantly stick with bottled.

# 9

Posted: 29/03/2007 12:05

Besides the water tasting bad in Dublin it smells at times, so I would always boil water for consumption and buy bottled water for drinks. Water is something this country has an aboundance of and yet we have not got reliable drinking water in our taps, our bottled water costs a fortune in comparison to other countries but I guess its just the rip off Ireland syndrome again!

# 8

Posted: 29/03/2007 12:00

I was always happy to drink Irish tap water until our area in N. Leitrim was advised to boil first-its ongoing since before Christmas!!

# 7

Posted: 29/03/2007 11:50

I have been drinking tap water for years also but I always always filter my water witha britta water filterer. I just think filtered water tates nicer. I will continue to drink the water but still filter it too though

# 6

Posted: 29/03/2007 11:47

I used to live in dublin and the tap water was gorgeous!! Now live in navan and have to use bottled for drinking and cooking as water in navan soooo bad!!

# 5

Posted: 29/03/2007 11:06

I voted 'no' - for taste reasons. When living in Ranelagh in the early 90s I used to always drink tap water. However, now in Fingal I find the water tastes bad. I always filter it for tea and coffee, and don't like the taste for drinking 'just like that' even then. Thankfully bottled water is cheap in some supermarkets.

# 4

Posted: 29/03/2007 10:58

I've done a bit of research on adding fluoride to drinking water. Apart from the ethical question of mass-medicating an entire country without consultation, I was pretty shocked to find out that Ireland as the one of the ONLY countries in Europe that mass-fluoridises also has one of the highest incidences of caries. Fluoride in drinking water seems to cause a huge amount of fluorosis in children's teeth which softens and damages the teeth. I run a ladybird group (girls scouts) in Listowel and of 25 children, 3 seem to show signs of fluorosis. So apart from all the news about contamination of water in Galway and Mayo, I'm really really not happy to drink any water in Ireland at the moment. It costs me a fortune to buy in bottled water, but right know, I'm scared not to. Have a look at the information out there about flouride and make up your own mind.

# 3

Posted: 27/03/2007 12:26

I live in an area where there was major water contamination years back, people were very very sick back then. No matter where I go, I never drink tap water.

# 2

Posted: 27/03/2007 09:49

I live in Galway, we have no chioce we cannot drink the tap water. If we do we may get very sick.

# 1

Posted: 26/03/2007 14:28

I've been drinking Irish tap water for 30 years and it hasn't made me sick, why would I stop now?