Charles Ward blasts ‘completely unacceptable’ water issues in Inishowen, brands water charge calls ‘outrageous’

100% Redress TD Charles Ward said: “Water leakages are a huge issue in Donegal. Many of our pipes are not fit for the pressure and are bursting.

"Staff are often forced to do emergency repairs at the weekend, which has knock-on effects on costs. Uisce Éireann continually sends out repair reports. What is really needed is a complete infrastructural update.

“In Inishowen, the upgrade of the Meendoran to Clonmany trunkmain needs to be fast-tracked. It has burst on many occasions. There have been multiple significant outages affecting hundreds of homes for weeks at a time. We were recently informed that upgrades would proceed.

"As I said, if the Government truly cared about water conservation, it would have prioritised this and fixed this problem and many others. Millions and millions of length of pipe throughout the country have burst.”

Speaking in the Dáil on Tuesday, Deputy Ward claimed there were two areas in Malin Head and on the Wild Atlantic Way, where road works have not been carried out because pipe improvement works need to be carried out first, branding the situation ‘completely unacceptable’.

He also referenced the distribution of water from the north east to other parts of Donegal.

“Shockingly, water is leaving Inishowen to service other parts of the county with Inishowen left airlocked.

“In a country where it rains almost every day, we should be able to store water in reservoirs built in local areas. Rural areas are very badly serviced when it comes to water. Again, the Government suggesting the introduction of a charge for an extremely poor service is outrageous.

“Tens of thousands of people from across the country marched in Dublin to protest against water charges. I was one of them and I will do it again.

"Almost a decade later, the Government is still trying to find ways to charge people for water during a cost-of-living crisis. People are struggling to get by with ever increasing bills for food and electricity. We must stop and scrap water charges altogether, once and for all,” declared the 100% Redress TD.