Ahearn raises Clonmel water issues in the Seanad

Photo courtesy of Garret Ahearn

Ongoing problems with water supplies in Clonmel have been raised once again in Leinster House.

Fine Gael Senator Garret Ahearn highlighted the frustration residents, businesses and local councillors have with the repeated outages to the service.

Speaking in the Seanad he has asked that Minister for Housing and Local Government Daragh O’Brien attends the Upper House.

He said Clonmel has been waiting for a new water treatment plant for years.

“On a weekly basis the water needs to be turned off because of adverse weather conditions and that’s just going to get worse and worse over the next number of months.

“Businesses have to close down because there’s no water services. We had a situation last week where creches in Clonmel found out at about 8.55am that they were having no water for the week so every parent that was coming in with their child was told there’s nothing we can do, you have to go home. Then families themselves have to rearrange their whole schedule.

“It’s infuriating for people living in Clonmel and the wider area outside Clonmel.”

Senator Ahearn feels Irish Water needs to be held accountable for the service they are providing in the county.

He says Tipperary County Councillors are extremely frustrated at the situation.

“Water could be gone for two or three days – it comes back and 24 hours later its gone again.

“I know Councillors are frustrated that there’s no accountability in terms of Irish Water at public council meetings. This is an organisation that gets public funding that isn’t accountable in a public meeting – they do private meetings – but they need to be accountable at public council meetings in my view.”