Irish Water accused of being too ‘chicken’ to face councillors

French rounds on the water authority after it stated it did not have the resources available to attend meetings in person

A DECISION by Irish Water to turn down a request by Meath County Council to attend its monthly meeting in Navan to discuss ongoing water outages in the county has been described by one councillor as “chicken”.

Fine Gael Cllr Noel French used the word during comments on a letter from the water authority stating that it did not have the resources available to attend in person, offering instead to answer queries in a number of other ways – through a dedicated “Local Representative Support Desk by email or phone Monday to Friday from 9am to 5.30pm, or on a special phone number after hours for urgent queries; also through councillor clinics which are held regularly (continuing to be held by zoom until further notice to protect the wellbeing of staff and local representatives).

Irish Water also said that its regional communications team provided regular updates to local representatives concerning upcoming projects and upgrades in the area. The most recent councillor clinic for Meath was held in 7th February and four councillors attended. The organisation thanked those who attended and said it would be happy to address the queries they raised. Further clinics will be held online on Tuesday this week and on 6th September next.

The authority gave details of reduced pressure/outages in Trim, Ratoath and Enfield. It had been necessary to carry out nighttime restrictions in in Trim following issues at the treatment plant to allow Brayhill Reservoir levels to recover. This was to ensure sufficient supply for houses and businesses during the day. Plans to upgrade and update Trim water treatment plant were being progressed, it said.

Recent outages in Ratoath had been caused by a burst water main between Windmill reservoir and Ratoath and another on the main serving Staleen water treatment plant to Windmill reservoir.

“As soon as Irish Water and Meath County Council were made aware of these disruptions, crews were immediately despatched and worked as a matter of priority to repair the water mains and restore normal supply to impacted customers as quickly as possible”.

It also said that it and Meath County Council were working to upgrade the ageing water mains between Windmill reservoir and Ratoath village which were prone to frequent bursts and outages.

“Similarly, a burst water main caused supply disruptions to Enfield village in February and were repsired as quickly as possible to restore normal supply to impacted customers”.

The authority said it had recently signed a €1.5m construction contract to build a new 300,000 litre covered treated water storage reservoir in Enfield which would supply up to eight hours water supply in the event of disruption. The project is also to include upgrades to Enfield water treatment plant which will “further minimise” the risk of unplanned outages and provide a more reliable water supply to homes and businesses.

It added that it was committed to keeping customers informed about supplies on a 23/7 basis and encourages them to engage on Twitter channels, Facebook, Linkedin and on its 1800 number.

Commenting on the Irish Water letter, Cllr French said “I want to say chicken. They are not prepared to come and defend themselves publicly and in a public forum. I have attended every councillors’ meeting and I don’t have a problem putting myself to them there but they seem to want to avoid public accountability. I use that phrase (chicken) because I can’t seem to get answers out of them at times.”