Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

"Wash your hands" has been the most consistent mantra since this pandemic arrived in Ireland, perhaps the only consistent mantra. Throughout west Clare, a number of water schemes have completely outdated water mains, including Cooraclare, Doonbeg, Miltown Malbay and Mullagh. One has broken down four times since this pandemic arrived in Ireland. The Irish Water staff locally have done an excellent job repairing it each time but twice in the past three years, that water mains was the subject of a contract to be replaced. That has not happened. The problem is not the length of time it is out in Miltown Malbay; there are group water schemes around Miltown Malbay where the people pay their water charges and rely on this water. In those group schemes the water is out for days on end. Five days was the last outage, the last of four outages. I know it is not the Taoiseach's role to manage where Irish Water replaces water mains but it is a public body. The Government is the ultimate shareholder and the Taoiseach is the Head of Government. Does he accept that it is not good enough at any time for people to be without water for days on end, but particularly at this time? Will he ask somebody in his Department to find out what Irish Water is going to do to replace those mains because while the staff locally are fixing them every time they break down, which is every couple of days and that is great, it is not enough? They need to be replaced.

See this speech in context