Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this issue, which is of deep concern to residents in Ratoath, as the Minister of State might imagine. There are regular outages there; we had in the region of six significant outages this year and many more instances of low pressure and everything that goes with that in the return, dirty water and the service being unavailable for a period of time. Ratoath is a big and growing community with in the region of 10,000 to 12,000 people living there and with 18,000 people in the wider catchment area who are affected by these outages when they happen. The latest outage was on the bank holiday weekend and in the last 24 hours residents in a number of housing estates were reporting outages and a lack of supply and pressure. I remember that on the hottest day of the year last year there was an outage for the whole day.

The infrastructure is crumbling and creaking, which is acknowledged and not in dispute. There is a plan in place, which is welcome, for investment in the Windmill Hill reservoir and trunk water main. I would like to get an update from the Minister of State on that. My understanding is that works will not commence before the end of the year and that it will be quarter four of 2024 before they will be completed. The Minister of State knows that is a long time away with the current rate of in the region of one outage per month. The impact of these outages is significant. It is a densely populated area with a young and growing population. It has many families with small children and many people with disabilities, including children. It also has restaurants, businesses and venues, all of which are impacted when these outages happen. I ask the Minister of State to give us an update and I want to know if there is any way that works can be fast-tracked. I understand that there are statutory procedures for all of this but what are the pinch points and is there any way the works can be fast-tracked or sped up? What options are being explored in that regard?

At this rate it looks like there could be 30 more outages before these works are completed, based on past performance. We hope this work can be fast-tracked but we need to prepare for that scenario. If that is the case, there needs to be an improvement in communications. The nature of the communications is not comprehensive, detailed or responsive enough. It needs to happen in real-time, it needs to be immediate and it needs to be more than a tweet or an email to local county councillors.

I had to argue to be included on those notices. In addition to that, there needs to be contingency. This is a recognised problem. Can we get tankers on site? Can we have rapid response and bespoke solutions for a list of vulnerable customers who would be contacted and supported? That is the type of response we need.

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