Cork councillors call on Irish Water to attend meetings and answer questions
Cork county councillors are calling on Irish Water officials to attend some of its meetings to answer questions.
Cllr Deirdre O’Brien won widespread cross-party support when she tabled a motion at a meeting in County Hall calling on Irish Water to be more accountable for its actions.
She said councillors had “a democratic right” to information from Irish Water, but the fact that it was not engaging properly with them was “only strengthening Irish Water's unaccountability”.
Cllr O'Brien said Irish Water had just two clinics with councillors this year in County Hall, a situation she said was not good enough, especially when it was not answering questions a lot of the time.
“I think the establishment of Irish Water will go down as the worst thing ever in history,” she said.
Cllr Noel McCarthy agreed that the clinics “weren't providing answers most of the time". "We're waiting for email (replies to queries) to come but they never come.” He said Irish Water officials should be asked to attend the council's three divisional (North, South and West Cork) meetings at least on a quarterly basis.
“The main problem is the lack of communication. They need to improve their communications,” Cllr Gobnait Moynihan said.
Cllr Frank O'Flynn said the council should be treated better as “at the end of the day it's Cork County Council (as its agents) who carry out repairs for them.”.
“It's clearly evident there's a lack of engagement. It's totally unacceptable,” Cllr Anthony Barry said.
Cllr Aidan Lombard maintained Irish Water makes commitments “and none of them ever seen to come true”. He said as far back as 2017, Irish Water had promised to spend €1.2m replacing a water main near Carrigaline that was continuingly breaking. He pointed out that nothing has happened since.
“Our villages can't grow, We can't build houses without adequate water and sewerage,” he said.
“In Ballinspittle village we have been refused point black to allow one house to be built because of an inadequate (sewerage) treatment system. In our local area plan we're allowing 100 houses to be built there over a six-year period, so where does that leave these plans,” Cllr Kevin Murphy said.
Cllr Michael Creed said Irish Water will not grant planning for new houses in Clondrohid and Enniskeane either and zoning land for housing there “is only a waste of time”.
Mayor of County Cork Cllr Christopher O'Sullivan said it was hugely frustrating trying to gather information from Irish Water.
"All we're looking for is accountability. We are in the midst of a massive housing crisis, yet we can't build in our villages because there's a lack of proper infrastructure,” he said.
