Cork households affected by lengthy boil water notices 'should be compensated' 

Unanimous support in county council for those who have suffered long-term inconvenience and agreement that they must get an alternative supply, tax credits 

DRAINING: The water quality in many parts of East Cork has been an issue for the last seven years.

Hundreds of householders throughout Co. Cork should get some form of compensation for being hit with repeated and lengthy boil water notices.

Cork county councillors want Irish Water to either provide an alternative supply and/or the government to provide additional tax credits to those who suffer such long-term inconvenience.

The need for this was raised at a meeting in County Hall by Fine Gael councillor Susan McCarthy, who won unanimous support from colleagues.

Ms McCarthy pointed out there is a serious, ongoing situation with the quality of water coming from a reservoir which supplies areas such as Aghada, Cloyne, Shanagarry, Whitegate, Ballycotton and parts of the southern side of Midleton town.

The water quality has been an issue for the last seven years. Efforts were made in 2018 to rectify it with a new filtration system. But that didn’t work and consultants were appointed to draw up plans to have the region connected to the supply from the Inniscarra reservoir. However, this hasn’t happened.

Ms McCarthy said nearly 10,000 people living in those areas were being repeatedly hit with boil water notices, some of them lasting up to nine months at a time.

Ms McCarthy said it's costing people a lot of money to buy bottled water for drinking, cooking and washing and they should be entitled to some sort of compensation for this.

Water outages

In addition, she said that the supply is so poor in some parts of Ballycotton it isn’t unusual for them to have water outages at least once a week.

Fine Gael councillor Michael Hegarty said the situation in the region was very bad and demanded Irish Water send somebody into County Hall to tell councillors how they intend to address it.

“It’s also causing disruption to the hospitality trade, even a simple thing like producing ice can’t be done from the supply. It’s very unsatisfactory, Mr Hegarty said.

“It’s very unfair on those who are suffering. I don’t hold out much hope though that Irish Water will do anything about it in the short-term,” Sinn Fein councillor Danielle Twomey said.

She said it's also very difficult for councillors to get information from Irish Water on outages, pipe breaks and boil water issues.

“The lack of communication from Irish Water drives me insane at times,” Fine Gael councillor John Paul O’Shea said.

He said two boil water notices were issues in Newmarket recently and councillors representing that area found it almost impossible to get any information from the utility.

Boil notices

Fine Gael councillor Kay Dawson said people in the Killavullen area were hit with a couple of boil water notices in recent weeks. “If the council was in charge (of the supply) we’d know who to go to for information. But with Irish Water it’s just a pass the buck situation,” she said.

Green Party councillor Liam Quaide said there had to be compensation for those living with almost constant boil water notices in East Cork.

Fianna Fail councillor Ann Marie Ahern agreed with him and described the lack of communication from Irish Water as “frightening.” “I come up against brick walls every time I email them a query. A good strong letter should go to them,” Fianna Fail councillor Mary Linehan-Foley said.

“They’re abysmal to deal with,” added Fine Gael councillor Sinead Sheppard.