Fire and fury over North Longford water outages

The number of water outages experienced by customers in North Longford and the ongoing low water pressure that appears to be implemented each night by Uisce Éireann, is not acceptable according to Cllr David Cassidy.

In calling on Longford County Council to engage with Uisce Éireann to assess the areas affected by regular water outages such as Esker, Ennybegs, Bawn, Kilmahon and surrounding regions, Cllr Cassidy pointed out that there had been 50+ outages since late January of this year alone.

The councillor raised the motion at a recent meeting of the Granard Municipal District, telling the council, “This is something that every councillor in this room has received calls about. I get them all the time. 50+ outages since January! It’s not good enough!”

He added, “The people affected … there’s elderly people, vulnerable people, children, I have seen work in South Longford taking place, and we’re getting a bit of work done here in Granard but we need to get it over there and help these people. I know Cllr Dalton has been working hard on this as well. I don’t care how we get it done as long as we get it done.”

Cllr Cassidy also sought clarification on “how pressure levels at night time hours, particularly in Kilmahon, seem to be turned down?" He added, “Why does the pressure go at night in these areas? Is Uisce Éireann turning off the pressure at night? This can’t continue. 50+ outages in 6 months and for multiple days at times.”

Supporting Cllr Cassidy’s motion, Cllr Colin Dalton pointed out that just last February, the council wrote to Uisce Éireann seeking a meeting in the chamber. He continued, “We were asked to submit any questions we had for that meeting.”

“We submitted our questions and both Cllr Cassidy and myself had questions submitted on these issues. Without doubt this is one of the busiest issues for us as councillors in our areas at the minute. The phone never stops ringing about these issues. An issue I submitted that day was asking about the maintenance of the line from Aughnacliffe back up to Esker.”

“The response I’m getting at the minute is, ‘we’re working on this’. We’re being fobbed off at the minute with excuses. We’re not getting proper answers. It’s not acceptable for people having to go to other houses to have showers in the morning.”

Cllr Dalton pointed out the hardship that comes with water outages particularly for farmers with large herds of cows who depend on running water.

Added Cllr Garry Murtagh, “There’s a lot of people that are struggling to cope with this. They’re talking about bringing water from the Shannon to Dublin but you have to query are they capable of delivering such a service when they can’t get something as simple as this issue sorted!”

Cllr Turlough and Cathaoirleach Padraig McNamara also voiced their support for the motion with Cllr McNamara citing it as unacceptable for anyone to be experiencing such issues.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme