James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Two days ago, I raised an issue concerning Irish Water, the lack of supply and the number of outages, particularly in Skerries, so I welcome the fact that following that, we had a meeting with Irish Water. I commend the residents for their determination to have this matter resolved. Arising from the meeting, there was a worrying element. The focus is rightly on finding an immediate, short-term and medium-term solution so I welcome the fact that Irish Water will put in booster pumps in Skerries and also put in a booster pump to fill the reservoir at Thomastown which supplies Skerries. However, there is a need, which is felt by the residents, for an independent report to be commissioned by the Minister to find out what the problem is because it was quite apparent last night that neither Fingal County Council nor Irish Water was 100% sure what the problem is. I very much believe that if one does not know what is causing a problem, the likelihood of finding a permanent solution to it diminishes considerably. I call on the Minister to commission an independent report that should not take a huge length of time to discover the cause of this difficulty. It cannot be explained by the stretch of good weather. As I said, there have been 20 outages over the past 18 months. I welcome the fact that Fingal County Council was at the meeting.Again, there are two agencies involved and we need somebody from outside to do the report.

The other issues raised were around the regulatory authority and what rights people have. It seems reasonable that neither Fingal County Council nor Irish Water would be responsible for what happens inside the boundary of a private dwelling, but if issues outside the boundary result in damage to property inside the boundary it does not seem to be fair or natural justice. When there are outages without warning and people are at work they cannot turn off their pumps, the pumps keep running and they burn out, or the house pipes become full of airlocks. Most people are not skilled in the art of bleeding out airlocks. It is a simple enough procedure if one is a plumber and knows the trade. This sort of issue costs people a lot of money. I would like to call on the regulator to give us some ruling on its role on the rights of consumers in this regard. These people paid €4,000 apiece for their water connection and the least they can expect is the service they paid for, and not to be regularly sustaining damage and costs because of burnt out pumps and airlocks, and in some cases washing machines breaking down. I ask the Leader to ask the Minister about this. I call on the Minister, through the good offices of the Leader, to instigate and commission an independent report into the causes of these problems in water supply in the Fingal area.