Councillors kick up a stink over sewage floods

Sewage flooding onto the footpath in Ratoath, unfinished work in Dunboyne and Ratoath left without water again, were among the criticisms levelled at Irish Water at last week's meeting of Ratoath Municipal Council.

Sewage had spewed out of a manhole on Irish Street, Ratoath the previous Monday, throwing faeces and toilet paper onto the footpath.

"It was sloshing up onto people's shoes and trousers. Irish water created the situation, but Meath Co Council had to clean it up.

"While Irish Water were responsible for the manhole cover, the council team had to come out and clean up the street. It as a horrible job. Irish Water seems to be able to get away with blue murder

"Meath Co Council tells us the water/sewerage situation has nothing to do with them, but it is the councillors who get contacted when Ratoath has no water night after night.

Cllr Maria Murphy raised the issue of unfinished work on mains pipes in St Mary's Park in Dunboyne.

She proposed Meath Co Council write to Uisce Eireann requesting that the section of work to upgrade mains pipes in St Mary’s Terrace on the Old Navan Road, which was not completed as part of a bigger project in 2019 to be progressed now.

"The project was to upgrade the system in St Peter's Park and St Mary's Park, but due to budget constraints, the section at St Mary's Park wasn't done."

She pointed out that the pipes in question were in the oldest part of the village and work should have been completed.

Cllr Brian Fitzgerald said the council should write to Uisce Eireann as it wasn't good enough to leave a project short like this.

The ongoing problem of water outages in Ratoath was raised by Cllr Gillian Toole who recalled that as far back as 1993 an engineer had reported there wasn't enough water capacity in Ratoath.

"Around that time development was halted in Dunshaughlin because of lack of capacity, but building continued in Ratoath."

She recalled a meeting she had with the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) in September, where she was told that in the event of water outages, alternative supplies such as tankers and bottled water should be provided, the supply should be switched to the Dunshaughlin water tower, there should be a business support scheme in place and plumbing grants for homes that have plumbing issues because of the water problems.

"I was told that CRU are unable to enforce these actions because of current regulations," Cllr Toole said.

She asked the Fine Gael councillors if they had approached the government TDs and Ministers regarding amending the water act to facilitate this.

Cllr Toole also questioned the wisdom of proceeding with the provision of the new water tower infrastructure for Ratoath, before the provision of the new pipeline from Staleen, Donore.

"They don't have consent from all the landowners along the route of that pipeline yet," she said.