"I really need this to be lifted"
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Live line with
Ciarán Cuddehy on RTE Radio 1.
0818715815 is the number as always if you want to give me a call and Terry Jackson is on the line. Terry, what part of the country are you living in?
I'm in Tipperary Town, Ciarán.
And what's been going on with the water in Tip Town?
Well, since the 11th of February this year, we've been on a boil water notice from Ishka Erin. And it's been dragging on and dragging on. And after a few weeks, I gave them a call to see was there any end date in sight. And basically, no, there wasn't. And nobody seemed to know what was going on. It went on and on. I phoned them a few times. Nothing changed. And then finally I decided to send an email to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage under Minister James Brown. I got a reply to say that the Minister had no function at all in relation to matters concerning Ishke Eireann. So I decided to email the Department of Health and seemingly they sent on my email again to Minister Brown's department.
And I got a reply then on the 11th of September to say that, you know, while the minister really didn't have any function in the operational matters of Ishka Aaron, they had made inquiries on my behalf. So it turns out that the problem is a borehole, the lining of which has disintegrated at source. The underground aquifer can't be accessed or something like that. And this can't be repaired. But the bottom line at that point was that temporary measures are progressing to lift the boil water notice until a permanent solution is found. So that's just words. It doesn't actually mean anything. Nothing is changing. There's no permanent solution. There's no temporary solution. We're still under boil water. And, of course, every time one has to... We can't brush our teeth.
We can't wash our fruit and veg. We can't drink it, of course. We can wash. We can wash our dishes and so on. But it's costly to boil the kettle every time one wants to have a drink of water or, you know... Then sort of dragging water from the supermarket is another expense and it's difficult as one gets older, lifting heavy weights and so on. So I just, I really need this to be lifted. I'm sure the people of Tipperary Town feel the same and businesses and so on, you know.
Yeah, so it's 33 weeks. This week. It will be on Thursday. That's correct. It will be 33 weeks since this started. So, listen, we as you'd understand, we got on to Ishka Aaron and what they say is, you know, we fully appreciate and understand the significant inconvenience this issue has caused to customers in Tipperary Town. And they say exactly as you've told us, they say the Cardangan water treatment plant is fed by two boreholes which draw water from the same underground aquifer. One of the boreholes suffered structural damage. So that led to a deterioration in the quality of water coming from that borehole. The second borehole is located close by. It draws from the same water source. So its water quality has also been affected.
They say they're progressing. a solution as quickly as possible with trial well drilling and hydrogeological assessments already underway, etc., etc. So they say they're going to do it as quickly as possible, but I guess speed is a relative concept. There's no timeline
given,
which would suggest they don't know the timeline.
Exactly. They don't seem to know the timeline at all. I've asked them over and over again. And basically, at the beginning, I was being batted off with the phrase that, look, the HSE have issued this boil water notice in conjunction with us, you know, as though it were the HSE's problem. It isn't. I mean, the HSE have to say, OK, the water isn't potable. But the problem lies with Ishka Heron, who are dragging their heels in this matter, as far as I can see.
33 weeks is a long, long time. And the Tipperary Town public water scheme is not a small scheme. There must
be
upwards of 5000 people boiling the kettle every time they want to drink.
Yeah, exactly. You know, it's a bit crazy, really. And you know what else is very annoying? The fact that there is a lovely...
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