Mattie McGrath: Clannmell businesses crippled by water outages

The Scourm daqui is one of my weakest to the Amen, I am an Coar Ngheil and Coar Ngheil, Tanaiste, Coop Ngheil and Mel, We had a tragic time in Clannamal and I want to thank the community, a school community, all the agencies and all the people, the community, all the people from around the country who rode in, and the support of these families, which was really deeply appreciated. I was to note that Carmel Town has a population of 19,000 people in the town with a huge hinterland as well. It is a fantastic industry. It is a town that is struggling over various issues, but it is a town with a strong community and a great business community who are doing their best at a very difficult economic climate. The Carmel Business Network has over 110 businesses in their network, made up of small businesses and medium businesses who are the backbone of our economy in the town. However, the businesses of the town are at their wits' end. They are doing their best to trade through the rising energy costs, but they are struggling to manage with an inadequate water supply. Not only the businesses, but also the households, hospitals, you name it. As you know, I have raised this matter, which I have written to you over the summer a number of times. The town has suffered from weekly water ouches, mild water notices and low water pressures. This is simply not acceptable. In a modern day network, modern times, you think we are in a third world country. It is not as bad. I was in Bosnia and Herzegovina recently in Medjugorje, a very impoverished place with the best of water at all times and broadband, and they have not done any of the spin that we have around here. The water issues are costing the businesses and householders. A business has thousands in additional costs and loss of revenue. Cost equipment that they have that gets destroyed when the water goes off, when they are not aware of it. They have been forced to close due to lack of water. A walk up the streets in Clarmel is daunting at the moment now, but to see so many vacant buildings. Businesses that were there for generations have been closed due to lack of business. It is even more depressing over the summer months, when you walk up and see businesses close with a badge on the door saying to apologise to customers, but due to no water, they have to close without notice. It is a shocking situation. That is okay. Occasionally in time people put up with that, but this is ongoing. I want to salute the hardworking county council workers, who are doing their best to keep the water in the pipes. They do a great job and have done it over the decades. The issue is quite simply unacceptable in modern Ireland. Businesses have to close due to lack of water. Not once, but as I said, 40 days since April. There are businesses that are paying thousands of euros each year to Iskane for water, and they are customers, and they are left without any supply. Any business could not operate that way. How is water left to get away with that? I do not know. The customer is always right as far as my business experiences are. They are not receiving adequate service, and they need urgent intervention. The level of communication from Iskane over the summer has been appalling, and the public representative line is simply not fit for purpose. The public are at a loss to know how we have had a wetter summer in recent times, and no water in the pipes, no water in the houses and the businesses. It is just as big as belief. I have been requesting a meeting with Iskane and management for over two months now to visit Clannmell water treatment plants and their tree, but I have not received that meeting. We had an OCSIS engagement meeting last week with updates, but in reality the updates were very poor. We are going to wait 10 years for a proper supply where they are going to take the water from the River Shure and treat it and put it in. In the interim, we are talking about giving us hard water from a mine rover's supply, which is a well, a board well, which will destroy the rest of the town, householders and businesses with all their equipment, because it is full of lime. We have huge problems, no confidence in Irish water, and we want immediate answers. Thank you. Thank you for raising this. I have a thanks to the Minister. Thank you for raising this issue with me here on behalf of our Department, and outlining the very real concerns you have put forward on behalf of the businesses in Clannmell, a town I am very familiar with as a former student of Tip Institute on the campus there, but also a town that is, as you said, doing great work in terms of trying to revitalise its town centre, and this is a huge challenge to it. I suppose just to say at the start that the provision of wastewater services in Clannmell and water services is a matter for Ishkaran in the first instance. The Ishkaran capital programme is fully funded to almost €1 billion of exchequer funding available in 2023, and Ishkaran will have invested €134 million in water and wastewater infrastructure in Tipperary from 2014 to 2024, and estimated that approximately another €136 million will be invested beyond 2024. My Department has made inquiries and has been advised that Ishkaran is monitoring the current Clannmell situation very closely. They have identified a number of projects to rectify many of the issues arising, as the Deputy will understand that these projects are complex in nature and may take some time to deliver. However, in the short term, Ishkaran are implementing remedial works for the three water treatment plants that serve Clannmell and Byron's and that will address deficiencies in the plants. Operational improvements are also being carried out with the installation of a generator with auto changeover to enable continuous power to the plants in the event of power interruptions and control valves with automatic shutdowns. They are also undertaking two kilometres of water main rehabilitation for the Clannmell network, covering Cashel Street, Williams Street, Morton Street, Bolton Street, Albert Street and Western Park. Replacing these old pipes with new, modern pipework will improve water quality and supply, as well as reducing disruptions, including low pressures and outages. These works are expected to be completed by the end of this year. In terms of responding to the business community, Ishkaran has rolled out a new text alert system for business customers in Tipperary. The aim of this service is to inform business customers of outages planned and unplanned, as well as drinking water restriction notices, including boiled water notices of a duration of four plus hours. If an issue arises on the network that causes a water outage in an area or affects water quality, businesses who sign up to the service will receive a text alert as soon as Ishkaran has assessed the issue and the necessary information to alert those businesses affected and for how long they might be without water. Furthermore, Ishkaran has advised that supports are available to business owners who experience issues with their water supply. Any non-domestic business customer who is impacted by a water quality notice will receive a tariff discount on their water supply charge for the period impacted by the water quality notice. In this case, business customers will receive a 40 per cent rebate on the cost of supply of water to their businesses for the duration of water quality notice, and this will automatically be applied to their bills. Further information can be found on the business section of Ishkaran's website. I will come back in a supplementary, Deputy, I think you have raised very serious concerns that are being addressed by Ishkaran, and I know that there has been a briefing for Tipperary or OCTAS members in relation to this, but that my understanding is that Ishkaran are making every effort to try and resolve the issues, and again, we will relay the concerns that you brought back to Ishkaran as well from our Department. Thank you for granting me this topic tonight as well. No, Minister, look, the Ishkaran are not hands-on. They do not understand the network, they do not understand the pipe network, the reservoirs, and they have a plan now to stop the water treatment plant in Perle-Venogh and stop taking water from that, and they have laid a pipe three kilometres up the road to put water back up to there. They do not understand what they are doing, they do not understand, they do not want to know, and they do not listen. We have a reservoir up in the Ragwin, which is empty, it should be used, and the business network you mentioned, and the text alert that the business did buy into it, they are not engaging with it, because Ishkaran will not give them the reports. Willembroke organised a meeting in Clomwell Park, which I attended. They asked for reports about these reservoirs and about the water supplies, they will not get them, they have to go to FOI, so the contempt which Ishkaran has for the businesses, for the householders, and what they have for public reps is appalling. I want to salute the councillors in the town, in Clomwell and the Borough district area, because they have been at their wits' end. Imagine no water for 40 days during the summer, when there are floods nearly in the river, and they cannot fill the reservoirs, and the other schemes as well, in the Alfinan region, the Galte region, and indeed the Linguan and Carrick and Shure. And water everywhere, and they can't fill the reservoirs, because they have technical issues that they don't understand, and they have technicians to fix them in time. So all you have in your reply there is useless, toothless and fruitless, because simple, basic, when the caretakers were there, and I salute one of them, PJ Cullen, who went to his rest last year, they were at the plants, understood them, they were looking at them from a distance, looking at them by computer. The reservoirs are less than a third full all of this year, when there is rain, rain, rain, and even tonight they are third full, and there is something radically wrong with the systems, when they can't fill the reservoirs, to continue the pressure on the pipes, and supply the towels. You mentioned relaying pipe work, we appreciate that as a help, but the basic problem is that the plants, and the lack of understanding of the system. New modern technology, and that is not fit for purpose, we were spending new plants in ultrasound and tunnelers, only fitted two years ago. Tunnelers had a boil water notice for 40 days there recently. All investment is not working, go back to the drawing board, and unfortunately Irish water is not fit for purpose, and does not listen to the people or the businesses. The Prime Minister, just having listened to the debate, is that it is not an unreasonable request to ask Irish water to engage with their customers in Clarnel, and they are a public utility paid for out of the public purse. Absolutely. I agree wholeheartedly, and I think in fairness to Ishgeirn, they have engaged in this issue, and they have, in my understanding, there has been a comprehensive written update issued to all local public reps this month, setting out Ishgeirn's investment for the Clarnel and the communication strategy, and engagement practices with local elected representatives. I do think, and my own experience has been that that is improving, and has been improving particularly over the last year. I also understand that Ishgeirn has provided comprehensive details on the Clarnel outages to the Clarnel Business Association last week, and further provided briefings to the Oireachtas members, to Tipperary County Council Water Services at a workshop last week. Again, I just, you know, this is more proactive. I know historically, I think there has been Oireachtas, deputies have raised issues around Ishgeirn's communication in the past, and I do think that that is improving, and again, you will challenge that deputy, but I do think it is improving. Regarding long-term plans, Ishgeirn is running a public consultation on the regional water resources plan for the south-east region, and this includes part of Tipperary, and the plan sets out options for providing a more secure, reliable and sustainable water supply for almost 370,000 customers in the south-east region for over the next 25 years. Feedback is sought through the public consultation on the draft RWP for the south-east. Again, I would reiterate that it is critically important, as you have said, Karen Corley, that that channel of communication between Ishgeirn and their customers, in this case the business community in Clonmel town centre, that communication is effective, it is meaningful, and it is addressing the issues as they see them. So I do think that is happening, but I can appreciate the challenge that it has brought about for the business community in Clonmel.