Irish Water held an information session for Councillors from the mid East Region where they answered some questions.

Cllr Derek Mitchell asked about the water shortages in Greystones the last 2 Springs when silica feeding algae occurred. ‘I have been very concerned that the large town of Greystones has had the water cut off at night and have been trying to get some answers and a written plan prepared for 6 months. It was explained that there was always enough water in the Main pipe but it did not flow adequately through the short connector pipe into the town’s reservoir on Blackberry Lane. Urgent measures such as installing a pump are currently being considered to try to improve it by next Spring.

The problem about the approximately 100 individual houses connected to the Main which are at high level is separate and needs a different solution which is not as far advanced. Irish Water have now agreed to provide a written report on these issues and after much complaining I feel it is getting reasonable attention’.

Leaks are a serious problem, they reported that they had come across 20 houses which in total were using as much water as Gorey!! At the beginning they will fix some leaks they see. I asked them to help householders whose pipes are not buried deep enough and thus leave taps on so it does nor freeze but don’t think they will deal with this.

Wicklow is one of only 6 counties where there is a poor out of hours service which I complained about. They are intending to improve this response in Wicklow.

I was surprised that only 10 Councillors attended given how controversial the issue is.

Other interesting facts were there are too many small water plants for good efficiency, Scotland has only a tenth of our number for a larger population