Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

While we are debating important issues, there are many families, especially in my constituency, who have no water at the moment. Since last Saturday afternoon, the entire community of Fanore in north Clare has had absolutely no water – not a drop, not enough water for people to wash their hands. In the past 24 or 48 hours, the people of Ballyvaughan in County Clare have been in a similar situation whereby they have no water. They do not even have water to wash their hands either. I acknowledge and respect the effort that has been made by engineers and other staff of Clare County Council to resolve these problems and make water available. However, I have no regard for the atrocious behaviour of Irish Water. People from the villages of Fanore and Ballyvaughan contacted Irish Water in the past 48 hours. They have been told by the help desk or call centre that Irish Water did not know there was a problem or water shortage in the area.

I am a Member of the Oireachtas and I live in north Clare. Yet, I have had no communication of any kind from anyone in Irish Water to indicate what is going on or to outline the timeline for resolving the problems. That is totally and utterly unacceptable. The time has really come for every county to have an office with Irish Water written over the door where people who are paying for water, either through taxes or rates, as is the case with commercial interests, can walk in or ring up and discover the problem with their water pressure or the reason there is no water in their taps and when the supply will be restored. I am asking the Leader to summon Irish Water to the House today to explain to Members of the Oireachtas exactly what is going on. The audiovisual room is downstairs. The officials can come in. They held clinics here for long enough. We have not seen sign nor light of Irish Water for the past two weeks since a crisis has developed in water.