Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his important Topical Issue. I will first address the water supply issues in west Waterford. As the Deputy will understand, the supply of public water and the provision of water services in general are matters for Uisce Éireann in the first instance. However, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has made inquiries with Uisce Éireann on the issues mentioned, and I have been informed as follows.

Uisce Éireann is aware of the water outages that the communities of west Waterford, in particular those currently experienced in Cappoquin, Lacken and Ballyduff. Outages in all of these areas have been impacted further by leaks caused by the recent cold weather followed by a thaw and milder temperatures. The weather conditions have also impacted other areas of the county and country. I have been assured by Uisce Éireann that it is working tirelessly to restore the supply in these areas and it apologises for the inconvenience caused. The areas of Tallow and Lismore are also experiencing outages. Tallow was under essential night-time restrictions. The restrictions were necessary to allow reservoir levels to recover, and to ensure homes and businesses have a normal daytime supply. The cold spell followed by a thaw has led to an increased level of leakage, further impacting the issue. With demand at or near capacity, water services and leakage detection crews were on the ground working to tackle leaks and to maximise treatment capacity. Uisce Éireann is asking the public for its support to help reduce the overall demand by preventing avoidable loss of water and by conserving water. Water levels will be reviewed and updates provided to the community as necessary.

Uisce Éireann crews identified and repaired a significant leak on the Tallow supply on Tuesday of this week. This repair led to the restrictions being lifted. However crews have identified multiple private side leaks, which will also need to be repaired as soon as possible to bring down the unaccounted for water to a more manageable level, reduce further need for restrictions and increase pressures to elevated customers.

There are two causes of outages in Lismore. Excessive demand due to leakage caused low pressure problems, which led to water outages particularly in high ground areas last week. Uisce Éireann has leakage detection crews working on locating the leaks and repairing them. Lismore does not have any on-site water storage, so any interruption to production has an immediate effect on all customers. When supply is restored, it can take a number of hours to recharge the water mains, especially in elevated areas. Uisce Éireann acknowledges the limitations of existing water treatment plant infrastructure, and is pursuing a permanent solution to address this. This involves an upgrade of the water treatment plant with storage colocated at the same site in Lismore. The proposed plan is included in the assessment, which is currently ongoing. Uisce Éireann cannot provide permanent storage until the ground water investigations have been completed and a new site chosen.

Providing temporary storage is challenging as it may require land purchase and planning permission. However, Uisce Éireann is investigating to see if an alternative temporary solution is available.

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