News is breaking of the most unimaginable tragedy in Essex where 38 adults and one teenager have been found dead in a container that entered the United Kingdom through Holyhead. It is an unspeakable tragedy and our immediate thoughts are with the families and communities of those affected. I am conscious that the news is only breaking and that there is very little detail. It is something to which the House may have to come back in the coming days if there has been any involvement of an Irish port in the travels of the container.

Yesterday evening a boil water notice was issued by Irish Water. It is impacting on more than 600,000 people throughout counties Dublin and Kildare and parts of Meath. It has been reported that the notice was issued because the Leixlip treatment plant had been compromised when the disinfection process did not work correctly. Clearly the notice was not issued in a manner Irish Water would have the capacity to deal with the volume of people that would be affected or the volume of queries. People were asked to make contact on the website, but it crashed. This morning they were referred to Twitter or the Irish Water website to look at maps, but they are very difficult to read, particularly for those with issues with their vision or older people. People are finding that Irish Water is still trying to update the maps, 18 hours later. It all seems to be very ad hoc and does not suggest Irish Water has contingency plans in place for an event such as this.

As I said, 600,000 people are affected. According to the most recent update from Irish Water, at 11.45 a.m., the boil water notice will last for a few more days, but it does not have a time or date. Will the Taoiseach update us on his understanding of it? It affects almost 20% of the population. What is his view of what happened last night? Is Irish Water fit for purpose? When an event such as this happens, its communications strategy needs to be robust enough to give people vital information when they need it. When was the Government informed of the impending boil water notice? Did the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, have meetings with Irish Water officials last night or this morning to discuss the impact of the boil water notice and ensure low income communities, in particular, would be provided with access to the necessary water tankers to ensure they would not be affected by it?

Reports have come in this morning that 39 people who include at least one minor have been found dead in a container in Essex. The information we have so far is very sketchy, but there are some reports that the truck may have passed through Ireland at some point. Obviously, we will need to obtain more information and carry out any necessary investigation that may be required. Everyone's thoughts are with those who have died and their families. It is a really terrible human tragedy. We will carry out any investigation that is necessary if it is established that the truck passed through Ireland.

On the major boil water notice covering north Dublin and counties Kildare and Meath, the incident has given rise to serious disruption and resulted in more than 600,000 people and many businesses being subject to inconvenience. The boil water notice covers my constituency and home and I understand it may last for several days. The Government's concern, first and foremost, is to ensure people's health is protected from any risk as a result of this incident. We want to see the notice being lifted without undue delay but only as soon as the water supply is deemed to be safe. Irish Water, the HSE and the EPA are all working to ensure this will happen as quickly as possible and keeping the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and the Government informed. The EPA is conducting an investigation to find out exactly what went wrong at the water treatment plant and why. I am informed that a fault at the plant in Leixlip resulted in water that had not been fully treated entering the distribution network for a period of time on Monday. Once the fault was detected on Monday evening, the plant was shut down and the fault quickly repaired. The plant was brought back into full production on Tuesday morning and is now producing treated water in full compliance with water safety requirements. However, because partially treated water needs to work its way through the entirety of the network and the test results need to show that this has happened, estimates from Irish Water and the EPA suggest it will take approximately 24 to 48 hours for the water to fully flow through the water network. As the water that did get into the system was chlorinated at all times, the main risk comes from chlorine tolerated microorganisms that could have made it past the treatment systems into the treated water network. In terms of engagement with the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, I do not have the exact timelines, but if I can get them, I will pass them on.

I welcome the Taoiseach's commitment to monitor the position on the access of the container through Irish ports. As Ireland cannot become an easy target for human trafficking, I welcome the commitment.

Coming back to the Irish Water issue, the Taoiseach has said the fault was identified on Monday evening, but it took 24 hours for a boil water notice to be issued to so many people. If the fault was identified on Monday evening, there was time to put plans in place for contingency planning, to provide information and engage in communication. The Taoiseach has said the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, is keeping in touch with Irish Water. Is he being a little more proactive? Has he met Irish Water management and regional management? If it takes 48 hours for the water to pass through, does that mean the period of 48 hours runs from Monday evening? My party and I fully accept and support making health a priority, but ahead of a bank holiday weekend people will want information. They will want certainty on the water supply ahead of any weekend but, in particular, ahead of a bank holiday weekend. We need more information and certainty than what we are getting.

That is correct. The fault was found on Monday evening. The Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, has asked the EPA to provide him with a full report on the incident, its causes and the responses of Irish Water and Fingal County Council which operates the plant on its behalf. The way it works is that before a boil water notice can be lifted, there must be three rounds of clear samples, which can take a number of days to complete. At this stage, I cannot give people a guarantee that the notice will be lifted before the bank holiday weekend. It could take quite a number of days before it is lifted. I do not want to give a date today which I cannot necessarily stand over. The plant is relatively new. It is not at under-capacity or under-equipped. It is operated by Fingal County Council under a service level agreement with Irish Water. The Irish Water website suffered heavy traffic and was down for some time on Tuesday evening and again this morning. Irish Water has increased web server capacity to deal with web traffic during the incident. We extend our thanks to the media, including the RTÉ website, Dublin City Council's social media service and others who distributed information during the week. I am advised that no tankers are needed because the boil water notice is a precaution. The fault was detected during the course of Monday and corrected, but the EPA needed to identify exactly what had happened and the level of risk before issuing a boil water notice.