Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 6 November 2025
Public Accounts Committee
Financial Statements 2024: Uisce Éireann
2:00 am
Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
That is exactly right. It would be quicker. May I ask one more question? I am relating the situation to scenarios I have experience of. There is an issue that comes up quite a lot in Leixlip. I alluded to the bursts we have had and I only use this example because it is my hometown and first port of call. Burst pipes always happen at 7 p.m. on a Friday or Saturday, to make things worse. I am sometimes on site. If someone tells me, I go out and see the pipes bursting. You wait for the lads to come and dig and there is a process. Typically, water is not restored until the next morning. Are we happy that we are so reliant on third-party workers for that? I am fearful at 7 p.m. because how do we know those lads have not gone home? By definition, they should have. We need crews available to dig out through the night. As importantly, I always found when I was a councillor, and it is still the case now I am a TD, that it was me who was putting the information into the local Facebook group. At 11 p.m., I am writing posts to tell people where we are. It is instant communication. I presume all the other local representatives are in the same situation. It is the same event, but critical work needs to be done. Are we happy that we have people to do it? How can we improve our communication and get the communication out there? Ultimately, that is the thing that drives people mad. Sometimes we have a gap. We find a similar gap in local authorities. Uisce Éireann knows that running water is the thing, especially for those with children, vulnerable people and the elderly. People like me can call over to someone else who has water but vulnerable people cannot do so.
No comments