Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is disgraceful that in 2023, the residents of Clare Island are still dealing with water outages for up to two weeks at a time. They are still unable to get any commitment from Uisce Éireann on when the necessary upgrades will happen. The most recent continuous outage lasted a full ten days, with some parts of the island affected by disruptions for 14 days. Water outages are a very serious matter for our islanders, who are dependent on fresh water supply for drinking and basic sanitation but also in the case of fire.

These water outages are not new to the Clare Island community either. Over the past two years, they have had to deal with five boil water notices, and most recently, one ending in mid-October. Apart from the lack of water, the island community is frustrated by the ongoing lack of engagement from Uisce Éireann. Ms Joanne Carroll, the community development co-ordinator, tells me that unless she contacts Uisce Éireann directly for information, the islanders do not receive any warnings or updates. Residents are advised to check with the Uisce Éireann website for updates but with the national broadband plan not expected to offer connections to some islanders until 2025, this is not an acceptable solution from the national authority for water services. Such a lack of engagement from our national water authority is simply not acceptable, particularly for vulnerable island communities.

I ask the Minister of State to ask the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien to engage directly with the Clare Island community to outline a firm plan of action with a reasonable deadline to ensure contingency supplies are in place while the work is ongoing. They asked for contingency water supplies to be kept on the island but this has not happened either. Uisce Éireann will not commit to a deadline for the upgrade works, only stating that these projects take anywhere from 18 to 24 months to complete. Too often, when questions are put to the Minister about water infrastructure services, he says that they have no responsibility, and that it is a matter for Uisce Éireann. It would not be tolerated in any other situation.

We see the same thing with other group water schemes across the county, and I have to raise the situation on Achill Island as well, and the Sáile group water scheme. Again, they are caught in the middle between Mayo County Council and Uisce Éireann, and nobody will take responsiblity with regard to the works that need to be done there. They talk about the circular WSP01/16 as justification for requiring sureties when dealing with water schemes. The whole situation is a mess and I have raised this several times with the Taoiseach and the Minister. Somebody needs to take a grip of what is happening here, whether it is on Clare Island or Achill Island. Sáile group water scheme, Uisce Éireann says, does not comply with Uisce Éireann's basic standard documentation. It is hiding behind these circulars, including the WSP01/16, to not have action on it. Yet we have these communities, and there are several more of them in Mayo that I am not going to mention tonight because I have mentioned them several times before, that are caught in this situation where there is an inherited debt.

We have to remember that all of these people in group water schemes are volunteers. They are left without water in this day and age in 2023, and when we are in a situation where the country has a surplus of €8 billion, it is absolutely impossible for people in these communities to accept what is happening here, where they do not have basic water supply. It is not good enough.

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