Tipperary council urged to end 'rigmarole' for getting sewage leaks resolved in Carrick-on-Suir

The convoluted procedure for getting raw sewage leaks dealt with in Carrick-on-Suir was criticised at a meeting of Carrick Municipal District councillors where a call was made for a simpler and quicker protocol to resolve such problems.

The call was issued by Carrick Municipal District Cathaoirleach Cllr Kieran Bourke who detailed the steps taken to get action taken recently to stop two sewage leaks, one onto a public footpath and the other onto a public road in Carrick.

He said he first had to contact Irish Water. The utility then contacted Tipperary County Council’s Water Services Section in Clonmel, who contacted Carrick staff and asked them to investigate the leak.

They then reported back to the Clonmel office, who in turn reported back to Irish Water, which then gave a direction back down the line to council staff in Carrick via Clonmel on what action to take to fix the leak and clean the area.

Cllr Bourke declared this needs to stop and called on the council to agree a protocol similar to one put in place by Carrick MD’s previous Director of Services Pat Slattery that enabled sewage leaks in the town to be dealt with quickly.

“Could we put a protocol in place that if there is sewage flowing on the street and public road that we shouldn’t have to go through that rigmarole; that we deal with it then and there,” he pleaded.

Carrick MD Engineer Denis Power responded that the council would sit down and look at putting in place a better system than the one operating at the moment. He agreed it wasn’t acceptable to have raw sewage flowing on a public road or footpath.

Cllr Bourke said he appreciated Mr Power’s response and urged him not to put this issue on the long finger. He reiterated that a policy was needed so it wouldn’t take four to five days to deal with this sort of problem if it happens again.