Louth councillor says Irish water 'not fit for purpose'

The plight of people in the mid Louth area who were without water on Christmas Day, and in some cases, right up to 31 December, was highlighted at last week's Louth County Council meeting, with Cllr Pearse McGeough telling the meeting that Irish Water is “not fit for purpose”.

Highlighting issues that have been faced by Louth people including low pressure, outages and “undrinkable water”, Cllr McGeough told the Dundalk Democrat that “Irish Water has questions to answer”.

“To have no water for a few hours on any given day is inconvenient and a nuisance”, Cllr McGeough commented, “but imagine your water going off on Christmas Day, just as you are preparing the Christmas dinner and trying to get the children washed and dressed for the big day.”

The mid Louth councillor said that this was the scenario on Christmas Day when he was contacted by residents of Ballapousta, Dromiskin, Stabannon, Ardee and surrounding areas. Upon checking the Irish Water website, he said, the information was that there was a fault but the water should be on by 1pm.

“That was only a few hours so although inconvenient, at least it was being fixed”, said Cllr McGeough. “Unfortunately 1pm came and went, and for some residents, their water returned at half pressure for around three hours and the water was muddy and couldn’t be used for washing or drinking. The water went off again at 5pm.”

Cllr McGeough said that Irish Water was asked to provide drinking water “because everywhere was closed as it was Christmas Day, the one day of the year when literally everywhere is closed”. They refused the request, he added.

According to Cllr McGeough, following “numerous” contacts with Irish Water “not only was there no water for residents in Ballapousta and Kilpatrick area but there was no information or communication from Irish Water”. He added that website was updated to say that works had been completed and water may take a couple of hours to return to normal.

On 26 December, St Stephen's Day, Cllr McGeough said that they “were now moving into day two of no water”, and that while “at least some of the shops were open again so residents could at least buy drinking water but still no reliable information from Irish Water.” Cllr McGeough said that “muddy water would appear for a while each day before going off again totally.

On 28 December (day four), he added, “a Louth County Council official visited the area to see what the problem was and confirmed that the pump station wasn’t working. “This was the responsibility of Irish Water and he notified Irish Water that it needed to be reset and we were told the water should be back around 2pm.” The water had not returned at this stage however, according to the Sinn Féin councillor.

On 29 December, (day five) Cllr McGeough said that Irish Water told him that investigations were being carried out and “all looked hopeful as the water returned”, “but only for one to two hours”, he added.

Irish Water informed Cllr McGeough, he says, on 30 December (day six) that crews were working on the “pump station interruption”, but there was still no water, adding that it was not until day seven, New Year's Eve on 31 December, when water returned to normal.

Cllr McGeough said that “throughout this week of drought there was very little communication from Irish Water, and while I appreciate that Customer Service agents only report what they have on their screen/website, their information was inadequate and inaccurate.

“A week is a long time with no water but especially over the holiday period.” He continued: “It should be noted that complaints were logged with Irish Water each and every day. “The people of the area were left not knowing from one hour to the next if they would have water or not.

“This frustration continued for a week which is wholly unacceptable. When things like this happen, people tend to be so relieved to have the water back that they draw a line under the issue but I get calls like this all the time as do most councillors.

Cllr McGeough added, “Irish Water is not fit for purpose. Their communication is abysmal with most responses being ‘cut and paste’. People in Louth are regularly faced with low pressure, outages and in the past, undrinkable water. It’s just not good enough and Irish Water has questions to answer.”

Cllr McGeough's comments at the Louth County Council January meeting, were supported by both Cllr Dolores Minogue and Cllr James Byrne.

Cllr Minogue said that better communication is needed from Irish Water. She added that if Irish Water had told them there would be no water for five days then they could work with it but they needed the communication.

Cllr James Byrne said that he had been told on Christmas Day that an investigation was underway to find out what the issue was but three days later he found out that this was not the case.

Louth County Council's Head of Finance, Bernadette Woods, told members at the January meeting, that she would pass on the issue regarding the lack of communication to Irish Water.

Irish Water was contacted by the Dundalk Democrat for a comment on the issue but it has not yet responded.