Water scheme protesters vow to fight on as case adjourned

FOUR water scheme protesters yesterday pledged to continue their fight after their case was adjourned for two weeks.

The members of the Bleach Lough Retention Committee had been facing jail if Limerick County Council obtained an injunction to prevent them from obstructing the laying down of a pipeline for their water scheme.

But at the High Court in Dublin, Judge Frank Clarke put the case back for two weeks so that the council could supply further information to the protesters.

“We’ll be going back to defend our line and we’ll continue on there. We’re satisfied that we have done nothing wrong and if we’re going to jail, we’ll be going in as innocent people,” said committee spokesman Dan Foley.

Mr Foley, 64, and the other protestors - Patrick Gleeson, 69, Gerry O’Dowd, 50, and Donal O’Brien, 48 - are all from Kildimo and Pallaskenry in west Limerick and are opposing the council’s plan to link their freshwater scheme with the Shannon Estuary Scheme, which takes water from the “polluted” River Deel.

They placed a white line on the road outside the village of Pallaskenry last month and have promised to stop the council contractors from going any further with their pipeline, which is just yards from the white line.

“Our campaign has been ongoing for years. We’ve still a long way to go in this issue because we’ve been looking for information for years and we’ve failed to get it,” said Mr Foley.

Limerick County Council has said that it would provide the people in Pallaskenry and Kildimo with good quality drinking water by linking them up to the Shannon Estuary Scheme and that it would also help three other group water schemes with deficient water quality.

The case is due to be heard again in the High Court on February 27.