Rural Limerick school impacted by repeated water and electricity outages
A COUNTY Limerick school has been left without water four times in eight weeks due to electricity outages and water supply issues.
Locals in Galbally have lost water supply a total of nine times in the last two months with the primary school having to send pupils home twice due to the outages.
David Kearney, principal of Galbally National School said they have had to close the school due to the lack of water which has been a “big inconvenience”.
“We are a rural area and the parents are commuting to places like Clonmel, Shannon and Cork.
“One mother dropped her child off at the breakfast club at 8am and then went to work in Mallow. She had just arrived when she got the call to say the school was closing for the day”.
Councillor Eddie Ryan said the outages are causing major disruption to the locality.
“Some of the issues were electrical and some were to do with the water supply. There is always an uncertainty about when it will come back. It is just not workable.
“There are two hairdressers in the village so the outages affect them as well as other businesses”.
Mr Kearney said that due to Covid-19 and other bugs, the school has to close if they think the water outage will be long term.
Irish Water says it is aware of the issues impacting the community in Galbally and apologised for any inconvenience caused.
Addressing the outages, a spokesperson said: “Two of these were linked to ESB power outages over which we had no control and others were due to unforeseen water main bursts.
“In each instance water supply was restored promptly by the local team”.
ESB Networks also apologised to customers and said it has been liaising with the school and water plant operators.
“ESB Networks can confirm that there have been three outages in the Galbally area of Limerick in recent weeks – one of which was a planned outage and two low-ground clearance outages.”