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

The reason for that is that currently one cannot deal with Irish Water. For the past fortnight I have been dealing with a case which involves a blockage in the sewerage system, not on a householder's premises, front garden or back garden, but on the public road outside the property. The householder was told yesterday evening that it was a matter for himself to deal with. The blockage is on the public road, not on the person's property. I want the Minister to tell me how that can be the case. I want the Minister to instruct Irish Water to clear blockages in the sewerage system, as has been always done by local authorities, whether the blockages are on the public road or on private property, including private estates and local authority estates. What I have outlined is happening on almost a daily basis.

Recently, Irish Water allowed a blockage to continue in Clonmel and sewage seeped out onto the public road. The Minister must instruct Irish Water to deal with blockages and to clear them in the very same way as has been always done by local authority employees.

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