Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The question of Uisce Éireann is quite complex and it faces many challenges. The rushed approach to setting it up in the first place is one of the reasons that a myriad of different organisations is involved, as Deputy Lahart said. To this day, there are still Dublin City Council workers being contracted to do Uisce Éireann work. If there is a problem in a Dublin City Council area, one can ring Uisce Éireann. Sometimes it is quicker to ring Dublin City Council, or vice versa, depending on the problem.

Deputy Brabazon spoke about obligations around blockages and the unfairness on people who have an outflow or drain in their garden. People who have bought their houses from the council but who find that sewage is coming up in their garden suddenly find that they are responsible for the whole sewerage line. That is a continuous problem. People are not informed when they are buying the house that this is one of their duties, even though they are not the ones who are at fault or are creating the problem. Just because it lands on their doorstep or in their back garden, they must pony up the funds because they are in a private house that is not the responsibility of the city council. That is an ongoing issue and there is a need to address it. If there is a public sewer, it should fall under Uisce Éireann's responsibility, whether it falls on private land or not, because initially it was built in that way.

The other major problem I have with Uisce Éireann is that it does not respond quickly to constituents. Sometimes I get notifications of road closures but other times when there is an issue and we contact Uisce Éireann it can be several days before it addresses the problem. Constituents of mine in Ceannt Fort were three days without proper water recently. This is an area where a lot of elderly people live and it is a consistent problem when there are leakages. We know that Dublin City Council has an old network that needs a lot of work.

However, it is unfair where there are planned works or where exceptions happen that there is no attempt by Uisce Éireann to communicate with those residents, especially in an area where there is no other access to other water.

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