Utility in hot water over Limerick boil notices
A SPECIAL meeting of the local authority was held last week to discuss the ongoing efforts of Uisce Éireann to lift a number of boil water notices which are currently in place on water supplies across Limerick.
The meeting was requested by councillors from the Adare-Rathkeale municipal district where a boil water notice has been impacting around 7,000 people on the Foynes/Shannon Estuary Public Water Supply since last May.
Following last week’s meeting of the full council, it was confirmed that members from the Adare-Rathkeale municipal district are set to meet with representatives of Uisce Éireann later this month.
That meeting will take place at the water treatment plant in Foynes which serves the Foynes/Shannon Estuary Public Water supply.
According to Cllr Adam Teskey, cathaoirleach of Adare-Rathkeale MD, some members of the public feel that councillors from the district are not doing enough to alleviate the boil water notice in the area.
“I can assure you we are doing our level best in trying to represent the needs and demands that are facing the people affected by this. We have no further option but to seek a full council meeting to get the executive to understand the severity of the problem facing people going into Christmas,” Mr Teskey said.
“Last week, I penned a letter to a minister and to the chief executive of Uisce Éireann. The minister replied to me through his office but Uisce Éireann did not bother to get back to me.
“The minister’s secretary has stated in their reply, ‘the minister has no function in relation to operational matters or in the resolution of disputes between Uisce Éireann and customers,’” Cllr Teskey added, citing that it was some admittance from the Government.
“It is not good enough, we’re facing into Christmas, 7,000 people are affected and the only people picking up the phone to those affected are the six representatives of our district.”
Cllr Teskey said the councillors have no say over Uisce Éireann, the ministers involved have no say and that it should be “dissolved or overhauled as it's not fit for purpose”.
During a special meeting in May, councillors in Adare-Rathkeale, were told infrastructure would be installed at the Foynes plant by Q4 of this year and according to Cllr Teskey “nothing has happened at the plant to date”.
Independent councillor Emmett O’Brien said he and Fianna Fáil Cllr Kevin Sheahan are both “living this boil water notice”.
He stated: “I am in the prime of my health but my elderly mother, thankfully in good health, has the added distraction of buying litres of water every other day, in addition to the task of having to attend to my father on his deathbed.
“The impact this is having on the elderly in my district is quite robust and onerous. (It’s) not just a financial draw but a physical draw having to lug water around the place. There is also a climate impact in terms of the amount of plastic bottles that we are producing.”
Cllr John O’Donoghue says he doesn’t know how many phone calls he has received over the boil water notice.
"I asked at our last council meeting when this plant will be upgraded or when it will be operational and we got back our usual answer of x, y and z. They might as well be telling me what they have been telling me on the phone - ‘Your call is important to us, please hold.’ - that is all we had been getting back.”.
Cllr O’Donoghue has criticised Uisce Éireann for its ‘generic’ answers saying the least it can do is get proper answers as to what is going on with the water supply.
“We had a boil water notice in Fedamore for four years and all we got was a notice. Is this what is going to happen behind in Shannon/Foynes?” he asked.
“That’s all we want to know, is it going to be sorted and when is it going to be sorted so we can go back to the public with the proper answers,” he added.