Irish Water is drowning out clarity

AROUND 20 staff look after the Lee Road waterworks facility in Cork which supplies most of the drinking water to homes and businesses across the city. The old waterworks have been there since the 1700s.

Over the centuries as Cork grew and expanded, the site changed and developed with it. In 2009, when flood waters surged through the area and gushed into the facility wreaking havoc, ordinary staff worked day and night to undertake repairs and maintain the supply to households throughout Cork.

That long history of keeping the supply going through thick and thin faces a new chapter dominated by Irish Water, the 500-strong super-quango fuelled by consultancy reports pasted onto the top of the existing structure.