Man dead 5 years sent letter by Irish Water

Irish Water is in hot water with Cork county councillors who allege that it doesn’t answer calls, is stalling on projects, and has sent letters to at least two householders who have been dead for nearly five years.

Councillors are champing at the bit to meet with Irish Water bosses on a range of issues, but are still waiting to see when that will be.

At a meeting in Mallow, councillors berated Irish Water for sending a letter to a Glanworth man who has been dead nearly five years.

Seamus Coleman, who received the letter posted to his late father Gerry, said it was hurtful to the family and he was concerned about how the company could make such a mistake.

“This is the crowd we have given control of our water to. It looks as though they don’t know their arse from their elbow. I could understand if the person was dead a couple of months, but not five years. Obviously the €80m they spent on consultants didn’t include checking out who was alive or dead,” Mr Coleman said.

The Irish Examiner has become aware of another letter posted to a person in north Cork who died four years ago.

Cllr June Murphy (SF) said she couldn’t understand why such mistakes were being made. “It’s an absolute fiasco. They can’t get anything right,” she said.

Cllr Dan Joe Fitzgerald (FF) said he was still depending on council officials to give him information on water outages, when it should be Irish Water informing him.

Councillors Ian Doyle (FF) and Timmy Collins (Ind) claimed they also couldn’t get replies to phone queries about recent mains breaks in the Charleville and Newtownshandrum areas.

Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil councillors Kevin O’Keeffe and Frank O’Flynn expressed anger at a delay in fixing serious water issues in Kildorrery.

Families there are having to travel to relatives nearby to have showers, while businesses have been severely hit by water shortages

Mr O’Keeffe said the council was told a year ago that money was ring-fenced to fix the problem.

“Now Irish Water is telling us that they will have to carry out site investigation works before it can be put out to tender. That means it’s unlikely anything will be done in Kildorrery this year. It’s not good enough,” Mr O’Flynn said.

Earlier this year, councillors reacted angrily to news that Irish Water bosses weren’t prepared to attend their meetings on a regular basis at County Hall.

They have since been informed by the company’s managing director, John Tierney, that his officials will only hold eight regional meetings with local authorities.

Mr Tierney said he would let the councillors know in early September about dates and venues. As of yesterday, they still hadn’t been informed of when or where these will take place.