‘MONEY IS being poured down the drain’ with frequent repairs to bursts and leakages in Doonbeg, a West Clare representative has remarked while the water supply for the west and north of the county is “at breaking point,” another councillor has claimed.
Efforts must be ramped up to resolve “the longstanding frequent bursts and outages due to the poor condition of the asbestos watermain situated in the raised bog rampart on the N67 south of Doonbeg village,” Cllr Gabriel Keating (FG) stated.
He called on Irish Water, TII and Clare County Council to step up to the plate. Keating said the section of road “is identical to a similar section which was lowered at Caherfeenick” and believed it was currently deteriorating, “a health and safety hazard and a regular inconvenience to the residents of the area due to the frequency of bursts over the years”.
Senior engineer in Clare County Council’s water services department, Cyril Feeney confirmed that the proposal had been forwarded to the relevant funding authorities with a reply awaited.
Within the past the year, there have been 38 leakages on the road, Cllr Keating claimed. The impact is most visible during dry spells, he added. Formerly employed in the financial services industry, the Cross native calculated, “it’s going to cost €1m to do it but I’d love to know how much it costs to fix each leakage, it is probably €5,000 or €10,000 each time, there’s a lot of expense involved in fixing leaks”.
Praising “the first class” team of engineers and officials in the local authority, Keating urged them to engage with Irish Water and the TII. “For once and for all this should be done, now is the time”.
Money could be saved by not posting the proposal to Irish Water with Cllr Ian Lynch (IND) predicting their response would not be positive. “The only way we seem to get traction on this is when a TD is shouting twelve months before the election,” he added. “This is a farming community, when they get water it’s as black as dirt, it’s shocking,” the Kilrush man continued. “How we haven’t someone in the Department to give us a response straight away is beyond me. We should be requesting the State to appoint someone to reply to these. We’ve lost total control of this”.
West Clare and North West Clare’s water supply “is beyond breaking point,” Cllr Shane Talty (FF) stated. Supply from the county’s largest water treatment plant, Doolough “is breaking down regularly” impacting on supply to the west, he flagged, “the North Clare supply is going off the reservoir in Ennistymon which had a constant procession of tankers from Ennis to supply Fanore”.
Acting senior executive officer in the West Clare Municipal District, John O’Malley admitted it was a challenging area which was not simply in the hands of Irish Water. A solution to the issues on the Mullagh Rd in Miltown Malbay was found by getting all parties to the table but this proposal focused on a national road, he explained.
On Irish Water, he said, “at the minute they will say they’ve committed funding, the section outside Doonbeg was repaired with an overlay, that’s the type of commitment they are giving rather than the millions said by Gabriel. It needs properly thought out engineering solutions”. O’Malley committed to working with senior officials in the Council “to try bring all parties together”.
An annoyed Cllr Lynch responded, “surely to God the motion by Gabriel deserves more than that. Jesus, give us respect, we’re representing the people of the county, they should have the courtesy to respond to us”.
Irish Water are not slow when it comes to sending out bills, Cllr Keating remarked, “we can’t be throwing money down the drain all the time”.
