Cork councillors furious at Uisce Éireann refusal to attend meeting on city's dirty water
Good To Enough Picture It’s ' Up A Been Stand To To Told Clear Off Need We As And Council File Not 'we’ve Them
Uisce Éireann has been accused of shunning Cork City Council by not providing its chief executive to answer questions about the city’s ongoing discoloured water problem.
The ongoing problem requires another blast of pipe flushing works this weekend.
Six areas will be targeted from 9am on Saturday, with the works focused on:
- Marble Hall Park;
- Castlegreina Park;
- Carrigeen Park;
- Bernadette Way;
- Yorkboro;
- Haig Gardens;
- Glenanaar;
- Boreenmanna Road junction from Rockboro Avenue to junction with Victoria Avenue;
- Belfield Abbey;
- Cherry Court;
- Glencoo Lawn;
- Glencoo Park;
- Greenmount Buildings;
- Greenmount Avenue;
- Green Street;
- McCurtain Villas;
- Wycherley Place;
- Spriggs Road;
- Kerryhall Road;
- Sunvalley Drive;
- French’s Villas;
- Vincent’s Avenue;
- Cahergal Park;
- Cahergal Lawn;
- Gordan’s Hill;
- Avonmore Park;
- Corrib Lawn;
- Ballinderry Park.
The utility, which has been under fire for months about the dirty water issues, came under fire again following confirmation its chief executive Niall Gleeson would not be available to come before council to address the issue.
In correspondence to City Hall, presented to this month’s council meeting, the utility said it was not in a position to provide a representative to attend individual council meetings, on a national basis.
“We understand the frustration of the affected customers and communities in Cork and, our taskforce, which was put in place last February, is undertaking all possible measures to minimise discoloration and to address the underlying issues across the network,” it said.
“It is particularly disappointing that the people of Cork are not seeing the benefits of the investment of over €100m by Uisce Éireann over the last number of years, upgrading the Lee Road water treatment plant, rehabilitating large sections of the mains network and the refurbishment of reservoirs."
It did, however, point out it provided clean and safe drinking water to more than 125,000 people in the city every day, and the discoloration issue affects about 1% of customers.
But Fine Gael councillor Shane O’Callaghan described the reply as “insulting”.
“Not alone are they not willing to let their CEO attend, they are not willing to have anyone attend, to answer legitimate questions from us, the representatives of the people, about poor levels of service in large parts of our city,” he said.
Labour councillor John Maher said the utility’s response was "a disgrace".
“We’ve been told as a council to clear off. It’s not good enough and we need to stand up to them.”
Fianna Fáil councillor John Sheehan, a GP, also expressed frustration and dissatisfaction at its level of service and communication.
“We meet them online but we tend to get the same standard response. But their level of communications and service delivery leaves a lot to be desired for the citizens of Cork and we are entitled to a better level of engagement,” he said.