Cork City Council to hold public meeting to air grievances with Uisce Éireann 

Uisce Éireann has established a taskforce to address this issues in Cork City, but despite targeted flushing of pipes in affected areas, the problems persist. File picture 

Members of Cork City Council have agreed to hold a special public meeting to tackle Uisce Éireann on a long list of issues they have with its service delivery across the city.

The move was agreed at Monday’s council meeting, which was presented with a report on the equipment failure at an Uisce Éireann wastewater pumping station last month — a critical element in the city's sewage pumping network — which led to raw sewage spilling onto roads in the south docklands, and to overflows of sewage into the River Lee.

The Environmental Protection Agency is investigating the incident.

It comes against the backdrop of ongoing issues with the quality of drinking water being supplied to parts of the city, which has been reported on by the Irish Examiner for almost two years, and which was the subject of a recent RTÉ Prime Time report.

Uisce Éireann has established a taskforce to address this issue, but despite targeted flushing of pipes in affected areas, the problems persist.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who met with Uisce Éireann last Thursday on Storm Eowyn issues, said he expects to see progress on Cork’s dirty water issue over the coming weeks as the taskforce continues its work.

However, Lord Mayor Dan Boyle sought council approval last night for the holding of a special council meeting, within the next two weeks, to air a range of issues councillors have with Uisce Éireann and its service delivery across the city.

He said the meeting with put on record councillors’ ongoing concerns on a range of water-related issues, it will allow them to air those concerns in public, and demand appropriate answers and actions from the utility.

The list of concerns will be quite long, and the issues come from across several directorates.

Later, council chief executive, Valerie O’Sullivan, briefed councillors on the equipment failure at Uisce Éireann’s Atlantic Pond wastewater pumping station on January 28 which led to raw sewage spilling onto Monahan Road, flooding it and forcing its closure.

The failure related to a penstock controlling the intake of wastewater to the station which had become stuck in a near-closed position, she said.

That led to a backup of wastewater in the system which in turn caused areas of Monahan Road and Centre Park Road to flood. Flooding levels increased at high tide at 5.04pm and the flooded roads were closed.

She said upwards of 20 tankers were mobilised to remove excess wastewater overflow. Volumes of wastewater reduced on Tuesday evening when high tide passed but they increased again with high tide at 5.25am on Wednesday and the tankers and pumps remained on-site and traffic control measures remained in place.

Once the flood levels reduced by noon on Wednesday, a repair crew got access to the pumping station, which allowed the penstock to be opened to allow wastewater flow through the system again.

All road closures were fully lifted after high tide, 5.45pm, on Wednesday.

Ms O'Sullivan paid tribute to the city council drainage crews who dealt with the incident just days after dealing with Storm Eowyn cleanup.

She also said she will brief council comprehensively later on issues related to the full transfer of water and foul drainage functions to Uisce Éireann in January, 2027.

In 2014, Uisce Éireann was allocated full responsibility, by statute, for all aspects of water services planning and delivery at local, regional and national levels, with local authorities acting as agent for the utility.

A service level agreement was in place between the council and Uisce Éireann until July 2023, when a new Master Cooperation Agreement (MCA) came into effect which has seen Uisce Éireann taking on the responsibility for the management and direction of all water services staff. 

A recent Local Government Audit shows that in 2023, €10.1m was recouped from Uisce Éireann comprising goods and services to the value of €0.8m, €6.3m in payroll and central management charges of €3m.

The MCA provides for the council's continued recoupment of payroll and operational costs, with all central management charges being recouped directly from the Department of Local Government in 2024, but when the audit was done last September, that has yet to be recouped.