Council seeks clarity on Carrigaline water outages

A CORK county councillor has warned that information provided to the local authority regarding a situation involving faults in a Carrigaline water main may not be “entirely accurate”.

In a recent motion, Fianna Fáil Councillor Seamus McGrath requested information about the number of breaks to a water main on Kilmoney Rd.

He also asked for information on the total cost of carrying out repairs on the water main.

The issue had been raised in recent months due to water outages affecting residents in the area.

A response, given to the councillors by the council’s senior engineer Daragh Quill, read as follows: “Uisce Éireann records show there have been three breaks on the Kilmoney Rd in the last three years.

“Two of these have happened in the last three months.

“The cost of repairs is typically €2k per repair”.

However, Mr McGrath voiced concerns the situation is being downplayed.

“I’m not sure it is entirely accurate to be honest,” he said.

“Certainly, there have been more than three breaks in the last three years in that area without question.

“I would say there have been three this year alone. I know this has been given in good faith but I don’t think this information is accurate.

“Can I ask that we write to Irish Water and ask them to carry out an upgrade of that water main as soon as possible?

“I would like to seek clarification on the information in this report because the information I have been getting on the ground is that there has been more than that number of breaks here recently.”

Fine Gael Councillor Jack White added: “If you were to talk to the water curators and staff I think they would paint a different picture as to a more regular occurrence with breaks.

“If there was clarification on that it would be welcome. Residents have had to put up with an awful lot.”