Ballivor water outages and Uisce Éireann accountability
Deputy Dempsey says Ballivor has been without water for days, with poor communication from Uisce Éireann and repeated missed timelines for the reservoir project. The Tánaiste says he will speak to Minister James Browne and presses the need for better accountability from Uisce Éireann to the House.
The village of Ballivor has been without water for over four days now, but Uisce Éireann does not appear to be accountable to me as a public representative nor to this House despite the billions of euro we are giving it to invest in upgrading our water infrastructure. There have been really poor communications, there is no end in sight and the school has been closed for the past two days.
In 2019, when I was first elected a councillor, the Ballivor reservoir project was a priority. By 2021, Uisce Éireann told me it was shovel-ready. In 2024, it told me it would be on site by 2025. Here we are in 2026 without a shovel in the ground. What am I supposed to tell the people of Ballivor and the wider Meath West area, where there are issues in Clonard, Trim, Rathmolyon and many other places with frequent outages? We need the reservoir built in Ballivor but we also need to hold Uisce Éireann to account.
Comment on this
I thank Deputy Dempsey for raising this issue, as I know she has on a number of occasions. On foot of her raising this, I will speak with the Minister, Deputy James Browne. I think there is a broad issue in relation to this. I have spoken to the Minister on this and he shares that view. We need to look at better accountability structures for Uisce Éireann to elected Members of this House. It is not about us; it is about the people we represent and the Deputy is clearly vocalising, quite correctly, the frustration on behalf of her constituents.
I do not understand. I say it here regularly that Uisce Éireann should have to answer parliamentary questions. If you ask a question to the Minister for Health, she will say it is a matter for the HSE and refer it to the HSE, but you can ask a question and you will get a response. If you ask a question here under the rules of the House at the moment, it gets ruled out of order. There is no logic behind that. I have raised this in the Government and will continue to raise it. We should change it together. Uisce Éireann should be answerable to this House.