Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

I support the amendment. Householders should preferably make up a majority of this forum and they should certainly be very strongly represented. Dealing with Irish Water is already a disaster for the public, householders and public representatives. Every Member in this House who has been dealing with Irish Water since last January knows that one cannot talk to Irish Water. The public and public representatives cannot talk directly to Irish Water. Irish Water will not allow the public to talk to the local authority people who are contracted to it. They will not allow public representatives to talk to the local authority staff who are contracted to it. One can only talk to call centre employees. This has been going on since 1 January.

Deputy Grealish told us yesterday of an incident involving a major water leak in his constituency of a weekend. He was told by the call centre personnel that they had registered his complaint and would report it on the Monday morning. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water were leaking from the system as a result of a burst pipe.

An elderly constituent of mine and his wife have been without water for eight days. That constituent was in touch with Irish Water and he got his reference number. He telephoned them again and again and they gave him a different registered number. I rang them and I got a different register numbered and I emailed them but we made no progress.

Eight days later the elderly gentleman and his wife still had no water supply and but for the understanding of a local authority employee, who effectively did us a favour, the individual in question would be still without water today.

I put a question to the Minister yesterday but he did not reply to it. I would like him to reply specifically to the query. The situation relates to a blockage in the sewerage system. I am currently dealing with a matter in that regard. I had to leave the Chamber yesterday evening to take a call-----

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