Mac Lochlainn claims water issues holding Derry-Letterkenny city region back, blasts Inishowen outages

The Sinn Féin TD complained that Letterkenny was being held back due to sewerage and supply issues.

The Buncrana representative also pointed to frequent outages due to bursts on the Clonmany to Meendoran trunkmain in North Inishowen.

“We want to develop Letterkenny into a city. We want to join Letterkenny with Derry and Strabane - we already talk about the north-west city region - and to attract all the investment and infrastructure that comes with that.

“The development of Letterkenny is crucial to that vision. There is no doubt that Uisce Éireann, given the lack of resourcing from Government, is a huge barrier to doing that,” the Buncrana-based TD said.

There is, he said, ‘huge frustration with Uisce Éireann’ in Inishowen.

"Of course, that is because it is not resourced properly or structured properly to facilitate that level of vision being operational. There is a lack of joined-up thinking,” he told the Dáil.

Deputy Mac Lochlainn said it is infuriating for Inishowen residents to continue to routinely experience water outages given the huge investment that went into the Eddie Fullerton Dam in the 1990s.

"At the heart of the Inishowen peninsula is the Eddie Fullerton dam, which is named after my late, great colleague, Councillor Eddie Fullerton.

"That was his vision. It is a massive water supply. It was resourced because it would supply water not just to Inishowen but, at the time, to the Laggan desert, as it was called, in east Donegal, and to Letterkenny.

"That is happening. However, it is unacceptable that communities in Clonmany, Carndonagh and north Inishowen do not have the proper water infrastructure.

"Right now, housing developments are being turned down in places like Carndonagh and Moville because of the water and wastewater deficits. Particularly when we have the Eddie Fullerton dam, it is not acceptable that this would happen,” he said.

The ‘Journal’ asked Uisce Éireann for a response.

A spokesperson said: “A member of our team has reached out directly to Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn TD and provided him with a briefing on the issues outlined...We appreciate Deputy Mac Lochlainn’s time and thank him for raising these concerns.”