Plugging water leaks will be very ‘difficult’

The staff and management of Irish Water have “an incredibly difficult task ahead of them”, according to the head of the engineering profession’s representative body, who said the true scale of the underinvestment in the nation’s water supply is only now coming to light.

John Power, director general of Engineers Ireland, made the comments after figures released by Irish Water revealed that most councils across the country are losing at least 40% of their water to leakages.

The statistics — released to RTÉ under the Access to Information on the Environment regulations — show that local authorities in Cork city and county, Kerry, Laois, Mayo, Tipperary and Roscommon, are losing more than half of their water supply, with Roscommon losing 62% of its supply to leaks.