by Alan Jacques
IRISH Water is failing to deliver on its most basic promise — to plug leaks in Limerick’s water system.
This is the view of Sinn Féin councillor Maurice Quinlivan, who was responding to reports that 40 per cent of Limerick water will be lost through leaks in in 2015.
“Once again, the basis for establishing Irish Water has been exposed as a charade. We were told that the new entity would both prove to be more cost efficient and that it would quickly address the issue of massive leaks within the system,” said Cllr Quinlivan.
“Instead, we now have a situation where the taxpayer has handed over almost €2 billion to Irish Water, with borrowing and further subventions to come, without any improvement to the domestic water system,” he added.
The City North representative pointed out that meters which nobody wants are still being installed across Limerick, huge areas await work to replace pipes which contain elevated levels of lead and 40 per cent of clean water is simply wasted through leaks.
Quinlivan also believes water supply and leaks will become worse due to the “ham-fisted” manner in which the metering programme is being rolled out.
“Irish Water have admitted that water pressure will be reduced in many areas across the state. Limerick residents are now expected to pay three times for water. Once in tax, second time in household charges which were pumped into Irish Water and now through water charges.
“This is unacceptable and must change. From the start of the shambles that is Irish Water I have said that if even half of what has been spent to date on Irish Water, including executive bonuses, consultants and legal advisors, had been spent on addressing leaks and other structural problems we would not be facing many of these problems,” he concluded.
There was no comment from Irish Water at the time of going to press.
