Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The public water supply is a matter for Irish Water. If it will not work with us or facilitate people, who do we go to? That is the problem. The response mentioned 2025. We are in 2022 so that is another three years of people buying water, drawing water and enduring frustration. I appeal to Irish Water to get its finger out and start forward planning to help these people. It is extremely important.

I was amused by the mention of filters in the response. When I raised this before - I think it was in May - the problem of accessing these filters was mentioned. I said it then and I will say it again that they probably would have a better chance of getting these filters more quickly from wish.com. I get the same response every time I raise this matter during a Topical Issue debate. It feels like there is incompetence in Irish Water. I worked in construction. If you are a foreman, you have responsibilities, like in any job. Why is it so difficult to organise something properly or plan forward properly? The issue is here. If there is a chance of resolving it, it will not be before the end of 2025. I will probably be back here asking why Irish Water is not supplying clean drinking water to the 9,500 people on the Whitegate scheme and a couple of hundred people, or maybe more, on the Killavullen scheme. People in both areas have businesses, pubs and restaurants. It will be very hard for them to survive. It is a question of incompetence. They knew what was happening two or three years ago. Every time it rains in Ireland, we cannot drink our water. It does not make sense. When I was a young fellow, a long time ago, we used to draw a bucket of water from the barrel and use it for cooking and washing and it was never an issue. I appeal to Irish Water to sort it out. To have 9,500 people with no water for the next three years is absolutely ludicrous.

See this speech in context