Galway City Council was informed seven months ago of a filtration system designed to clear the water supply of cryptosporidium, it has emerged.
The parasite has left the city and parts of the county without clean drinking water for the past five weeks.
A Cork-based company, Enva, gave details of its filtration system in September last year and also warned at that time that there was a widespread danger to public health should an outbreak of cryptosporidium occur.
The company, which had been commissioned by Galway City Council to examine the water supply, suggested the use of a system using ultraviolet rays which it said would rid the Terryland plant of the parasite without disrupting supply.
The Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, who visited Galway earlier this month told RTÉ News that he had not been made aware of the report until last Friday.
