Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise a few issues related to my constituency of Meath West. Thousands of residents in Trim and Rathmolyon have had their water restricted for the past 11 days and this looks set to continue throughout this week. This has caused huge distress to the people and businesses affected as they are left without running water for long periods. Irish Water communication seems to entail posts on social media platforms. The only way many older people and others who do not use social media find out is when they turn on the tap and find there is no water. That is not good enough.

The Trim water treatment plant requires delivery of a part from the United Kingdom, for which it is still waiting 11 days later. If there was any urgency on the part of Irish Water, how could it wait on a part for 11 days in this day and age? This is affecting thousands of people and businesses. It is a joke. The treatment plant in Trim is outdated and needs to be upgraded urgently. I ask that this be done as soon as possible.

In other parts of the Meath West constituency people have been waiting for a long time for Irish Water to release funds for projects. People in Ballivor have been waiting for an upgrade for the past few years. Water tankers have been filling up the reservoir at different times of the year. While it is supposedly on the list of projects that are to go to tender, the Ballivor project needs to be fast-tracked as it, too, affects thousands of people.

At the other end of my constituency, in Westmeath, there is a section of old pipes less than a kilometre in length in the Castlepollard-Fore-Collinstown area that keeps breaking and causing misery for people. We need Irish Water to release funding to address this. I have been on to the council for years. We have water services in the Meath and Westmeath local authorities that do their best. However, when funding is not released for these projects, what can they do? The Minister of State must engage with Irish Water on behalf of the people and businesses of Meath West to address these issues as a matter of urgency and to release funding.

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