Cork TDs seek answers to city water discoloration issue in the Dáil

Two Cork North Central TDs pressed a government minister to give a date when water would be ‘clean’ again in the city during a late night Dáil debate on Wednesday.

Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould and Mick Barry TD of People Before Profit/Solidarity raised issues around the discoloration of water being experienced in households on the northside and some other areas in the city and pressed Minister for State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Malcolm Noonan, for answers relating to Uisce Éireann’s handling of the problem.

The Sinn Féin TD said that he had initiated an appeal on a social media platform before Christmas asking constituents to get in touch with their accounts about the quality of water in their homes.

“This is 2024 and today alone I was contacted by people in Blarney Street, Blackpool and Ballyvolane who told me that their water is still dirty, it is still unclean,” said Deputy Gould.

“A man contacted me and told me his mother had dementia and he found her on a number of occasions drinking discoloured water from the sink,” said the TD.

Vulnerable

He added that there are vulnerable people, those who are blind or with limited sight, who were unable to see if the water was discoloured and unable to follow the advice of Uisce Éireann not to drink discoloured water.

The Solidarity/People Before Profit TD Mick Barry asked when could his constituents turn on the taps and not be fearful that brown or orange or otherwise discoloured water would come out.

“When are people in Cork going to stop having their dishwashers ruined by discoloured water and when are people going to be able to stop spending €20 a week, €1,000 a year on bottled water in a cost of living crisis because they are nervous about what is coming out of their taps, especially for their kids.” 

He said that the three Cork ministers – Mícheál Martin, Michael McGrath and Simon Coveney – had been ‘very quiet’ about the issue. 

Questions

“It is not just me who is asking these questions, thousands of my constituents are asking the very same questions and the Minister of State and his government would want to start providing a few answers to my constituents very damned soon.” 

In response, Minister Noonan said that government was aware of the discolouration issue and of people purchasing bottled water.

“It is something that is affecting communities in Cork and we are conscious of that,” said Minister Noonan. 

“As part of Budget 2024, the Minister secured funding of €1.6billion to support Uisce Éireann in the delivery of water services.

“The National Development Plan commits to almost €6 billion in capital investment to be undertaken by Uisce Éireann in the period 2021-30.” The minister said that Uisce Éireann had informed him that there were 600km of water mains in Cork city and that 507km were cast iron pipes and up to 100 years old. 

He added that, as a result of work carried out to date to flush the system, there was a ‘downward trend’ in reported cases.