Tipperary County Councillors report ongoing frustration with Uisce Eireann following a four-hour meeting yesterday.
The meeting began with a presentation about the Shannon Pipeline project which involves extracting water from the Shannon at the Parteen Basin, piping the water to a treatment plant at Birdhill and then distributing the water over the entire eastern region of Ireland but to Dublin in particular.
Uisce Eireann says the project is the only viable means of supplying water for the capital. The company is to hold non – statutory consultations during November with events planned for Birdhill and Nenagh in advance of submitting a planning application in 2025. Councillors from all five Municipal Districts then had the opportunity to raise issues in their area.
Cllr Liam Browne says there was little good news for the Tipperary Cahir Cashel MD during the meeting as funds are not available to deliver a new wastewater treatment plant in Golden.
This plant is essential according to Cllr Browne to enable the construction of homes and to end the current situation of sewage being discharged into the river. Upgrades to the Cahir and Limerick Junction Wastewater Treatment plants have been delivered.
Uisce Eireann plans to deal with legacy issues as part of it’s longer term work programme which may cause delays in cases where Developer Provided Infrastructure(DPI) in involved such as Waste Water Systems in housing estates.
The Department of Housing issued a circular in April 2024 stating that Uisce Eireann have been assigned responsibility for remediation of DPI which may cause delays in Tipperary County Council taking completed Housing developments such as Glen Court in Emly under it’s control.
Cllr Browne says Uisce Eireann are not providing an adequate information service to councillors or the public in respect of outages and suggests the ESB networks communication model should be adopted by Uisce Eireann.
Cllr Browne is also critical of the approach taken by Uisce Eireann in using hard water sources which is putting additional costs on households and businesses as equipment needs to be replaced due to timescale build up.
It is understood that the provision of a new Waste Water Treatment Plant in Ardfinnan has been made a lower priority for Uisce Eireann than had been previously announced.
