Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to refer to an incident that took place at Bengal Terrace, Old Cork Road, Limerick. The mains pipe burst and ten houses had to be evacuated as a result. As Irish Water does not have senior personnel on call at weekends, there was nobody available to deal with the incident. I compliment the social worker from Limerick City & County Council who turned up very early that morning and spent the day at the location to ensure that people were transferred to appropriate accommodation. They were put up in hotels over the weekend. One elderly lady had to be taken to hospital by ambulance as a result of the incident. There was up to 2 ft. of water in some of the houses, yet nobody from Irish Water was available to come to the location. The council staff turned up on behalf of Irish Water to fix the mains pipe that had burst. Early yesterday morning, a senior person came from Irish Water and the first comment made to the residents was that they should inform their house insurers. That is not acceptable. As the day went on, they changed their approach and offered to put people up, especially people with young children and those who wanted to move out of their houses, in a house for a month. Three families are moving into one house and a few more are moving into other houses. I would like the Minister to intervene and confirm to Irish Water that when an emergency happens, somebody has to be available to deal with the issue. I was in a number of the houses and while they were provided with dehumidifiers, they are not the answer to the problem. Floors, furniture and everything else has been destroyed. A complete compensation package will have to be put in place by Irish Water to compensate the residents. I ask the Leader to bring this issue to the notice of the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Denis Naughten.