Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. As he will understand, the supply of public water and the provision of water services are matters for Uisce Éireann. Uisce Éireann has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local level.

The scope, prioritisation and progression of individual projects are matters for Uisce Éireann and approved through its own board and internal governance structures. Under section 7 of the Water Services (No. 2) Act, the Minister has no function regarding Uisce Éireann's specific operations at Dargle Wood. However, the Minister has made inquiries and my understanding from the information provided is that an unplanned outage occurred on Sunday, 20 April. A number of customers were impacted following that burst water main, which resulted in low pressure and water interruptions in the area.

Local Uisce Éireann service crews should be immediately dispatched when an unplanned outage occurs to do repair work as soon as possible. This did not happen, and Uisce Éireann acknowledges that it did not meet the service expectations as regards that localised burst. A leak detection crew was mobilised to find the burst on the Tuesday morning, 22 April, with the repair completed by the Tuesday evening.

Following the repair, Uisce Éireann was made aware that some customers experienced airlocks in their households and deployed a plumber to further help those householders and water was returned to all properties.

Uisce Éireann would like to thank elected representatives for highlighting the issue to its teams and is grateful for the support of South Dublin County Council crews in attending the site and carrying out the repairs. Uisce Éireann is reviewing the burst history in the Knocklyon area and will develop appropriate works programmes.

Uisce Éireann understands how disruptive unplanned outages are and it has informed the Minister that it regrets the inconvenience caused to customers and residents. A full review is ongoing relating to the delay in dispatching crews to the site to ensure that this does not happen again.

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