Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I should have thanked the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this Topical Issue tonight. Uisce Éireann is not hands-on. It does not understand the pipe network or the reservoirs. It has a plan to stop taking water from the water treatment plant in Poulavanogue. It has laid a pipe 3 km up the road to pump water back up there. What it is doing is bizarre. It does not want to know and it will not listen. We have a reservoir up in the Ragwell. That is empty but should be used. Businesses did buy into the business network and text alert service the Minister of State mentioned but are not engaging with it because Uisce Éireann will not give them the reports. William Burke organised a meeting in the Clonmel Park Hotel, which I attended. Reports about these reservoirs and the water supplies were asked for but were not given. Businesses will have to make freedom of information requests. The contempt Uisce Éireann has for businesses, householders and public representatives is appalling.

I salute the councillors in Clonmel borough district area. They have been at their wits' end. Imagine having no water for 40 days during the summer when there are nearly floods in the river. The reservoirs cannot be filled in other schemes, including those in the Ardfinnan region, the Galtee region and the Lingaun supply in Carrick-on-Suir. There is water everywhere but the reservoirs cannot be filled because there are technical issues that are not understood and there are no technicians to fix them in time. The Minister of State's reply is useless, toothless and fruitless. When the caretakers were there - I salute one of them, PJ Cullinan, who went to his eternal rest last year - they were at the plants and understood them. Now they are looked at from a distance and by computer. The reservoirs have been less than a third full all of this year when there has been rain and more rain. Even tonight, they are a third full. There is something radically wrong with the systems when the reservoirs cannot be filled to maintain pressure in the pipes and supply the towns.

The Minister of State mentioned relaying pipework. We appreciate that is a help but the basic problem is at the plants and the lack of understanding of the system. It is new, modern technology and it is not fit for purpose. We have a spanking new plant in Orchardstown in Thurles, only fitted two years ago. Thurles had a boil water notice for 40 days recently, so all the investment is not working. It is about going back to the drawing board. Unfortunately, Irish Water is not fit for purpose and it does not listen to the people or the businesses.

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