Mattie McGrath criticises Irish Water over leaks and Clarmel supply

I too am glad to be able to speak in this motion here tonight. I'd like to say that my company do work for Irish Water, used to do it for county councils and transferred over to the being that was created in Irish Water, which is an entry I don't have any faith in. There's no understanding of the serious problems that we have. The last speaker, somebody mentioned water is going to be very scarce this year because we can see the rivers and streams so early in the year at so low at this point in time. And there will be water outages and everything else, but the waste of water and indeed the waste of water by consumers, but the waste of water by Irish Water and the leakages and people ringing up and trying to report leaks and frustrating to see big, big leaks. And the waste in this city of water is just outrageous. I think, you know, 40% plus of the water, one of the worst in the world with comparison to some third world countries are not as bad. And the fact that they're going to now pipe water from Shannon to Dublin, something I've strongly opposed up to a leaky system where it can be contaminated. Inwards again, from those leaks, when leaks out, pollutants can leak back into the system. But it's just madness to think that they wouldn't look at doing those repairs. They missed the golden opportunity during COVID when the streets were quiet and the roads were quiet and to do that kind of work. But they say they want more cash. I met them last night in Clarmel Park Hotel and my colleagues have met them as well. A team from Clarmel to tell us about their bringing in water from Munro. A hard water system where the north of Clarmel has it already and is crippling on families and businesses with the hard water, the lime in the water from the borehole. First of all, the borehole hasn't an infinite life. It's subject to outages for the power cuts. It was out for three or four days and about two months ago because there was outages. Unexplained outages. They're spending 21 million, I think, bringing it into the town of Clarmel to give it to all of the town. Now, the town of Clarmel has been serviced by Denari and by Podervan Oak schemes. They're both based in County Waterford, but that's the system around the river. The County Waterford is there. And Podervan Oak scheme was built by the British. An excellent and wonderful mountain stream supply. A treatment plant here that was maintained by the Johnny Hattigan for decades. Another Waterford Council, Tipperary Council employees, Clarmel Corporation employees actually at the time. And looked after and nourished. It's flowing down the hill into Clarmel. My own office is on it. And the whole centre of the town is on it. And the water, I don't believe, was once ever, I think, a buy notice on it. So they're telling us now that the EPA want higher standards. The new plants that they've built, first of all, they're disconnecting that up there. I've described that as an act of vandalism. A wonderful supply to keep. And they have a reservoir in the ragwell that they could, I said it's leaky, they're doing an examination on it, fill that from their scheme and have it as an extra backup. They're depending on a pump. They pump all the water into Clarmel. They pump all the water into Clarmel. They're going to pump it up the giant scrape to fill a reservoir that was newly constructed there some years ago. But we're depending on a pumping system. And the business in Clarmel and the households in Clarmel won't know what hit them when this water comes in maybe September or whenever they're going to connect it. They don't know how the facilitation works at the moment. So they won't know what hit them because of the damage to all the equipment. We can see what happens to kittles and other utensils. Whatever about the fine machines they have and technically the heist machines for cook and bacon, you know, you name it. Everything else, all restaurants, hairdressers, you name it. And there'll be enormous problems. And they refuse pint blank to put in a softener at the plant at source, which they could do, plenty of space there, but they won't. And they still expect businesses to pay for this water. And it's going to do damage. So there's going to be unbelievable issues. Apart from the fact that all through last year in Clarmel and a very wet summer, we had outages day in, day out as an assistant that we have with the three sources. Glenary, Pullmanoog, and indeed Myrovis are north of the town. And the Alfinan region water scheme comes in to the west of the town as well. But it's so hard to deal with Irish water on the ground. We had a wonderful network of supervisors that Tipperary County Council had. And South Tipperary County Council, and Clarmel and Burnham Council. They knew every pipe, every stopcock, every air valve. The less than Irish water don't want to know. I wouldn't engage with people who are retiring for them. They asked, I know some of them have told me that they went six months before they left to tell whoever's taken over, come along with us. We know where all the valves are and the network and understand it. And you're talking then to people with the reps and everything else. It's just, you're talking to people that are doing their jobs, but they don't know the system. They don't know where the weaknesses are and the strong points are. But fundamentally, the reason is it's more than true. They're not listening to each of the area. Last night, there were 10 strong members of Irish water there for two hours telling them about oil. What great word do they use? Consolidation. Consolidation. They read these buzz words. But simply, I honestly have to say they don't understand what they're doing. Fundamentally, that's the problem. I have called numerous times for them to be stood down and given it back to the county council. And with this motion, people might say, I'm going to waif the motion. There's an issue about water. I'm like himself, Deputy Gogarty. I think people should get a fair reasonable supply of water. And after that, what is wasted should be charged first. Because at the moment, businesses are paying for water in and paying for water out. And it's not very fair. And those, and they pay it and they have to pay it. And that's fine. They use a lot more of it. But the situations of water in many parts of the country, and in these sewer systems and wastewater, there's an awful lot to be desired. And the entry that we know, I think, is a failed entry set up by Philip Hogan. And it hasn't served the public council. I don't believe it will succeed. Guru Mahal. Thank you, Deputy. Deputy Healy Ray.