Nightly water restrictions across the Dublin area are to be extended to next Thursday at least. Dublin City Council says they will remain in place each evening from 8pm to 7am the following morning.

In a statement this evening the Council said "We are reviewing the water supply situation on a daily basis and a decision will be taken when appropriate, to change the current level of restrictions".

"An analysis of the current situation carried out at Ballymore Eustace Water Treatment Plant has shown a stabilisation in production" but it also warns "production at the Plant is still at a level well below that required to meet demand".

They are once again urging consumers all over the Dublin region to conserve water, in an effort to help restore levels in the treated water reservoirs back to normal.

Government criticisms 

Several government ministers have been critical of the handling of the crisis by Dublin City Council. Tourism Minister Leo Varadkar said it should have been handled much better.

"It's hard to know what the extent of the problem is but it actually seems to be quite limited. But obviously anything that affects business or affects tourism I'm concerned about" he said.

"I do think the City Council could have done a better job in terms of communications; we know the problem is in Ballymore Eustace but we don't know exactly what the problem is" he added.

While yesterday the Environment Minister criticised the Council for the lack of notice it gave people.

"I think that that is something that Dublin City Council should learn some from this experience; we shouldn't hear about it on the media yesterday morning that we have a problem" he said.

"There should be a communication plan in place, and that didn't happen on this occasion to the extent that I would wish I've been speaking to Dublin City Council about this and hopefully they will learn a lesson from that" he added.