666 The mark of a TD’s feud against his nemesis Irish Water
AN INDEPENDENT TD has defended flooding Irish Water with a staggering 666 separate representations on behalf of constituents over the past two years.
Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath was one of 15 TDs who have inundated the water utility with at least one query a week since 2019.
Mr McGrath said his representations – which numbered more than one every single working day – related to a ‘plethora of issues’ in his constituency.
However, he said Irish Water had improved in recent years at dealing with queries from what was a ‘disaster at the start’.
Asked whether he was overdoing the number of queries, he said: ‘I don’t feel I am – it’s a big, huge company. 99% of the cases would be very genuine. You might get the very odd frivolous one but very few.
‘They [Irish Water] have improved, they definitely have, but it was not thought out before it was set up and how it would work.’
Mr McGrath said issues could range from sewage leaks to connection problems. ‘We have a situation
‘It was not thought out before it was set up’
in Clonmel with treatment plants – they have just two mountain [water] sources and after heavy rain, the water is discoloured and things get blocked.
‘There are all these kinds of issues, sometimes complex, sometimes simple.’
He was not the only TD in Tipperary who had regular communications with Irish Water on behalf of constituencies.
Michael Lowry, his constituency colleague, made the second-highest number of representations with 256 over the space of two years.
Next on the list was Roscommon’s Michael Fitzmaurice – who sent 201 queries to the utility.
The fourth highest number of representations came from former minister Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran.
He sent 187 in 2019 but his queries fell to just eight last year when he lost his seat in the general election.
Fine Gael’s Brendan Griffin came next on the list with his 194 queries, followed not far behind by fellow Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae with 159. Mr Healy-Rae said he had positive dealings with Irish Water and that they did their best in getting problems resolved.
He said: ‘I can give you examples of the kind of thing I would contact them about – one lady had a main sewer passing behind her house, and the sewage bubbles up in her garden.
‘I might have a housing estate where there is a leak in the mains and the person would contact me before they would contact the council or Irish Water. ‘They’re the personal ones. Then you have the bigger ones where you’re looking for a water scheme for an area – we have a lot of places in Kerry that have no scheme whatsoever.”
Other Oireachtas members in the 100-plus club include Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue, Donegal TD Thomas Pringle, Kerry’s
Danny Healy-Rae, Fianna Fáil TDs James Browne, Willie O’Dea, Aindrias Moynihan, Robert Troy, and Mary Butler, along with Independent TD Michael Collins, and former Fine Gael TD Jim Daly.
Irish Water also provided a detailed breakdown of representations from the last quarter of 2020
and what they related to.
Of the 912 received in total during those three months, the largest volume were described as ‘general queries’ (283), a new connection request (96), and infrastructure queries (151).
Another 56 representations related to blockages, three for health and safety hazards, 43 for low pressure and 11 for ‘malodours’.
There were 39 queries about general water quality, eight about pests, and nine about ‘defective reinstatements’.
Irish Water said it had received 8,776 representations from elected representatives during 2019 and 2020 with a sharp fall last year.
In 2019, there were 4,800 individual queries received but that fell almost 20% last year to 3,976, with 82% of last year’s issues closed within three days.
The water utility said it was committed to working openly and transparently with elected representatives at local and national level.
A spokesman said: ‘We provide a dedicated support desk to respond to queries across all Irish Water departments.
‘[We] also provide support at a local level to councillors through regular scheduled councillor clinics where utility personnel are available to answer queries face-to-face and discuss local issues raised and broader changes that impact at a national level.’
He added: ‘We would like to thank elected representatives for their continued engagement on all matters Irish Water and look forward to continuing to work with them in supporting their constituents.’
‘The sewage bubbles up in her garden’