29 September 2024
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
File photo of TD
Fianna Fail TD James O’Connor has criticised Uisce Eireann over its failure to provide quality water supply services to Ballyhooly residents.
The Cork East TD told the Public Accounts Committee that householders in Ballyhooly near Fermoy in north Cork are facing daily problems with water supply due to a lack of investment by Uisce Éireann.
Representatives from Uisce Eireann were before the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday to answer questions about supply.
“It is completely unfair and unacceptable that Ballyhooly residents are living without adequate water supply for years now,” Deputy O’Connor said.
“I’ve been inundated with people from Ballyhooly contacting me to raise their concerns about water services…They are having ongoing problems with their water supply in the village. This hugely impacts households.
“A pensioner told me his electric showers no longer work due to loss of pressure. The toilets don’t fill properly making it impossible to flush it consistently. The person who raised that with me has an auto-immune condition.”
Deputy O’Connor added that water pressure issues were also causing householders issues with their gas heating and hot water supplies.
“The water pressure is preventing gas boilers in the home from functioning leaving them without hot water and heating,” he told committee members “It’s also impacting on cooking, laundry and dish washing.”
He added: “What I can’t understand as an Oireachtas member is that you have no plan to fix these issues and you are recording a profit of €329 million in the last calendar year……How are you running a profit of that amount when Ballyhooly and dozens, if not hundreds of other locations in the country don’t even have a functioning water supply?”
Uisce Éireann CEO Niall Gleeson, in response, told Deputy O’Connor the profits are invested directly back into capital to fund improvement projects across the country.
Margaret Attridge, Head of Water Operations, acknowledged there have been supply issues in Ballyhooly.
“Local crews have been trying to sustain the supply by constantly fixing leaks and trying to optimise booster pump from the reservoir but if we boost too much there’s a risk of pipe bursting and increasing the leak,” she said.
She added that works needed to resolve the issues require about 6 km of pipes being upgraded and that the works would be in the pipeline but she did not give the committee an estimated date for these works.