'Very unsatisfactory' Irish Water responses - councillors

Responses from Irish Water to queries on current work on the Barrow Extension Project have been described as 'very unsatisfactory' by two local councillors, writes Brian Byrne.

Despite motions and questions at Kildare County Council since last June, Cllrs Tracey O'Dwyer and Evie Sammon had extreme difficulty in getting Irish Water to come to a meeting at the Council on IW's plans to change the water supply in the Kilcullen and Naas areas from the Liffey to water from the Barrow. Finally, a meeting did take place on 10 March, attended by both Fine Gael councillors.

"At that meeting we raised the same issues we have been raising since the commencement of this project," Cllr O'Dwyer told the Diary today. "They are the lack of communication with residents and customers, the lack of a detailed map showing exactly what areas are going to have their water supply changed, and why the conditioning unit at Srowland is still switched off."

The €3.5 million water conditioning system at the Barrow treatment plant at Srowland in Athy has not operated since mid-March of last year, and has only been in operation 'intermittently' in the previous 18 months. Potentially, water users in mid-Kildare will find themselves having to prematurely replace kettles and washing machines, perhaps even industrial plant, because of increased water hardness. Concerns about changes in taste to the water supply have not been addressed.

At the 10 March meeting the councillors were given a map of the project, which Cllr O'Dwyer described as 'not detailed and quite vague'. "We also got no commitment that the Srowland conditioning unit will be turned on."

Cllr O'Dwyer said they had been told that Irish Water 'do not have the capacity' to communicate with each household, and do their communications 'through local media'. "The changes in the water supply could happen in May, but I am of the understanding that residents will not be informed when the change occurs," she says.

Describing it as 'all in all a very unsatisfactory response', she said both she and Cllr Sammon will continue to share any messages they receive from Irish Water, 'in an attempt to make up for their poor communication'.

Editor's Note: On 15 January, the Diary emailed Irish Water's public affairs department querying why the organisation was ignoring Kildare County Council? Yesterday, 22 March, we got a response (following a previous interim one ten days before promising a response). The pertinent paragraphs are as follows:

"Irish Water and Kildare County Council have proactively engaged stakeholders in relation to the Barrow Scheme and to date have issued 6 press releases containing project updates to all local media outlets and local elected representatives including TDs and Senators as well as local business stakeholders groups including local branches of Chambers Ireland. 

We have also provided project spokespeople on local radio on a number of occasions to discuss the project specifically. Where possible, when planned outages were necessary as part of these works, we have undertaken direct letter notifications to local residents and businesses in the relevant areas impacted by the works and in these notifications we have included details about the project also.  

The Irish Water website includes a permanent project page with details and updates on the project as well as all press release content which has also been shared across our social media channels. Since September 2020, we have hosted 2 councillor clinics for Kildare, answering any queries on the Barrow Scheme and two councillor briefings specific to the project, providing a detailed presentation about the scheme and the areas included. We have also responded to any direct queries received relating to the project via our dedicated desk for elected representatives. 

Our customer contact centre continues to be updated so that the team can answer customer queries specific to the project, and customers registered on our vulnerable customer register are contacted directly where outages or restrictions are planned in accordance with the customer care guidance required by the CRU. 

Construction works began in September with over 3km of new water mains already constructed between Killashee and Naas, via the Rathasker Road and is scheduled for completion in Q3 2021."

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