Boil water notice

unkel

Irish water issued a statement that everyone in affected areas should immediately only drink boiled water

In their statement they stated the affected areas, see below

The problem here is that their organisation is so incompetent that they haven't included Lucan on that list even though we have been switched unfortunately to that contaminated crappy hard water supply from Leixlip since the start of the year

So, people of Lucan, boil your water. Don't listen to the official state resources, because they are incompetent. And wrong. Listen to me, and here's proof from their own website that indeed, Lucan is provided with Leixlip water:

https://irishwater.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=56937c0ed9594e3a8d3b480571402a00&fbclid=IwAR0ZtLNtRouwU-UBsDhJLNGOA5sPdwSRkKByfD6OJgGC14f6tL1FL8LUX0Q


"Artane;
Ashtown;
Balbriggan;
Baldoyle;
Ballyboghill;
Celbridge;
Clonee;
Clonsilla;
Coolock;
Coolquoy;
Corduff;
Darndale;
Donabate;
Dunboyne;
Finglas;
Garristown;
Glasnevin;
Howth;
Kilbarrack;
Kilclone;
Killester;
Kinsaley;
Leixlip;
Lusk;
Malahide;
Maynooth;
Naul;
Palmerstown;
Poppintree;
Ronanstown;
Rush;
Skerries;
St Margaret's;
Straffan;
Sutton;
Swords."

Linky

Apologies for the rant, but how incompetent can a state organisation, with staff on very high wages paid for by you and me the tax payers get?

tricky D

Add to the incompetency the fact that both fingal.ie and water.ie websites were unresponsive/crashed afaics.

Always have a 5l stashed.

septictank

Ment to be resolved now but the water in the pipes need to be bleed and the ok given later.

1874

how long is this going on?
Never got any notification but I always understood Lucan was fed from the leixlip reservoir, I only found out that they were supplementing supply with well water after I was told at the ideal homes exhibition, and this after I pointed out the increase in residue as if the water hardness had changed over the preceding year. Any information on what the failure is? and the outcome? whats in the water as a consequence? how were they informing people in the areas it was reported in? Given the area affected, I heard absolutely nothing, that is practically a regional emergency. If its in the last week then Im not surprised as I seem to be more susceptible and was ill all last week. You cant drink bottled water and the domestic water supply is not treated, Ive honestly been considering treating my own drinking water.

septictank

6pm today I seen the first warning.

Josey Wales

Has there been any indication of how long the boil notice will be in effect?

Sleeper12

Raheny not on the list either yet a third of Raheny is effected

Sir Oxman

The map they issued was kindergarten stuff, low res, non-zoomable.
Had to rely on someone posting the Leixlip BWN map as a comment on Irish Water';s twitter account

https://irishwater.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=56937c0ed9594e3a8d3b480571402a00&fbclid=IwAR0ZtLNtRouwU-UBsDhJLNGOA5sPdwSRkKByfD6OJgGC14f6tL1FL8LUX0Q

with which you can zoom into street level.

average_runner

Boil notice will remain till you hear further.

How come our major will post all the good things going on in sdcc and lucan but never the serious stuff!!!

PhilOssophy

"Ms Harris said a “small mechanical failure” at “one of the older elements” of its Leixlip plant caused the pollution."

Oh well. A water ban during the summer, another one during the snow, now a boil water. Pipes falling asunder across the country.

But isn't it great that we got rid of water charges.

average_runner

PhilOssophy wrote: »

"Ms Harris said a “small mechanical failure” at “one of the older elements” of its Leixlip plant caused the pollution."

Oh well. A water ban during the summer, another one during the snow, now a boil water. Pipes falling asunder across the country.

But isn't it great that we got rid of water charges.

We didn't, we still pay for it through our tax

Sleeper12

average_runner wrote:

We didn't, we still pay for it through our tax

This nonsense again.

Our taxes pay for a very basic water service and this is all we get. There is no money to invest in the water system. Because Irish water don't have the money to repair all of the leaky pipes they have been reducing the water pressure all over Dublin in the last few years. This means that mains water fed electric showers are failing all over Dublin because the water pressure isn't good enough to activate a pressure switch in the shower. Several times per week we have to replace these showers with tank fed showers. It's not that the mains fed shower is broken but they can no longer work because of the pressure reduction.

We won't have a decent water system in Ireland until we actually pay for it, house by house.

Spanish Eyes

Have friends living in Palmerstown. The interractive map excludes them completely i.e. East of M50 is ok, BUT.... the list of places affected actually includes this suburb.

It is mad stuff altogether, and they haven't boiled water as they assumed they were not affected via the map. They have young kids too. This is a disgraceful mess up of communications.

Pherekydes

Sleeper12 wrote: »

This means that mains water fed electric showers are failing all over Dublin because the water pressure isn't good enough to activate a pressure switch in the shower.

That's why you connect your power shower to the water tank in your attic, not the mains.

On the news, it was mentioned that normal service may not be resumed until the morning.

Sleeper12

Pherekydes wrote:

That's why you connect your power shower to the water tank in your attic, not the mains.

An electric shower isn't a power shower. They are two totally different types of showers.

givyjoe

Sleeper12 wrote: »

This nonsense again.

Our taxes pay for a very basic water service and this is all we get. There is no money to invest in the water system. Because Irish water don't have the money to repair all of the leaky pipes they have been reducing the water pressure all over Dublin in the last few years. This means that mains water fed electric showers are failing all over Dublin because the water pressure isn't good enough to activate a pressure switch in the shower. Several times per week we have to replace these showers with tank fed showers. It's not that the mains fed shower is broken but they can no longer work because of the pressure reduction.

We won't have a decent water system in Ireland until we actually pay for it, house by house.

Water charges do not solve the issue of incompetent staff and mismanagement. Irish waters handling of the issue has been nothing short of a shambles.

Sleeper12

givyjoe wrote: »

Water charges do not solve the issue of incompetent staff and mismanagement. Irish waters handling of the issue has been nothing short of a shambles.

I love how once a boil water notice hits Dublin there is an outcry. This will effect us for another day, two at most. There have been parts of the country that had to boil water for well over a year & no outcry. Our water system is a shambles & will continue to be a shambles until people pay water charges. real water charges, not the pretendy "it's in our taxes" nonsense

average_runner

Sleeper12 wrote: »

This nonsense again.

Our taxes pay for a very basic water service and this is all we get. There is no money to invest in the water system. Because Irish water don't have the money to repair all of the leaky pipes they have been reducing the water pressure all over Dublin in the last few years. This means that mains water fed electric showers are failing all over Dublin because the water pressure isn't good enough to activate a pressure switch in the shower. Several times per week we have to replace these showers with tank fed showers. It's not that the mains fed shower is broken but they can no longer work because of the pressure reduction.

We won't have a decent water system in Ireland until we actually pay for it, house by house.

I pay over 50% of my salary to taxes in this country, which is one of the highest in Europe with one of the worst public services for it.

So we do pay enough, we just need to spend the money in a more logical way and make everything more efficient.

Its like the USC tax was meant to be temporary but its not.

PhilOssophy

average_runner wrote: »

...... which is one of the highest in Europe ....

Are you sure?

Spanish Eyes

PhilOssophy wrote: »

Are you sure?

For bang for your buck probably is really.

Sir Oxman

Sleeper12 wrote: »

I love how once a boil water notice hits Dublin there is an outcry. This will effect us for another day, two at most. There have been parts of the country that had to boil water for well over a year & no outcry. Our water system is a shambles & will continue to be a shambles until people pay water charges. real water charges, not the pretendy "it's in our taxes" nonsense

BIB might have something to do with the amount of people affected - 600k

Sleeper12

average_runner wrote: »

I pay over 50% of my salary to taxes in this country, which is one of the highest in Europe with one of the worst public services for it.

So we do pay enough, we just need to spend the money in a more logical way and make everything more efficient.

Its like the USC tax was meant to be temporary but its not.

Here's the thing about water charges. Lots & lots of people pay no income tax. Not a penny. Low paid, unemployed, OAPs etc. 100s of 1000s of people paying no income tax yet getting the same services as you. Water charges if properly introduced would would catch all of these. Not the nonsense FG tried to bring in e.g. everyone pays but the water allowance exempts most OAPs, people living alone & families. This stupidity meant that the people caught for water charges were going to pay a small fortune because so many would be exempt. My household with four adults would have been paying 1200/1500 per year.



We need water charges where everyone pays. From newborn babies to OAPs. No allowance. Every 100 liters charged BUT at a much lower rate than FG wanted to charge. The present system doesn't raise enough money to improve the system AND far too many people get away without paying a penny towards water leaving you & me to carry the load.

Sleeper12

Sir Oxman wrote: »

BIB might have something to do with the amount of people affected - 600k

BUT the 600K were fully aware that parts of Ireland had boil notice for longer than a year & there was no outcry. They didn't care. Plain & simple.

Nermal

average_runner wrote: »

I pay over 50% of my salary to taxes in this country

No you don’t.

DaveyDave

Interesting that any news article I've read doesn't mention Lucan but we're on the map.

Expected to last a few days...

Sir Oxman

Sleeper12 wrote: »

BUT the 600K were fully aware that parts of Ireland had boil notice for longer than a year & there was no outcry. They didn't care. Plain & simple.

Probably (I wasn't aware of it btw), but the fact is 600k make more noise than a couple of hundred or a thousand or two.
That's life.

unkel

average_runner wrote: »

I pay over 50% of my salary to taxes in this country

With respect, nobody pays over 50% of their income in taxes in this country.

unkel

My youngest child has been sick with an upset stomach for the last few days. She drinks a lot of water. Could be worse if I hadn't copped onto the fact the Lucan gets the Leixlip water supply and I have been boiling her drinking water since last night.

Not saying this is related, I don't know. But it's a bit of a coincidence though isn't it? Several other people in my whatsapp group from my small estate (<100 houses) have reported similar issues

Mistakes can be made, but the incompetency not to have Lucan included on their list is inexcusable imho :mad:

Sir Oxman

unkel wrote: »

My youngest child has been sick with an upset stomach for the last few days. She drinks a lot of water. Could be worse if I hadn't copped onto the fact the Lucan gets the Leixlip water supply and I have been boiling her drinking water since last night.

Not saying this is related, I don't know. But it's a bit of a coincidence though isn't it? Several other people in my whatsapp group from my small estate (<100 houses) have reported similar issues

Mistakes can be made, but the incompetency not to have Lucan included on their list is inexcusable imho :mad:

Irish Water have proven themselves incompetent with this one.
From the so called map they issued to RTE and the media (non-zoomable, low res - I had to squint to see if my place was on it and even then I couldn't make it out) to the failure to have a proper text list until this morning and even then they missed out areas.
Their website crashed, no-one was manning the info phone lines or answering on social media.



Luckily I found the Leixlip BWN map posted by a member of the public on a twitter comment underneath Irish Waters twitter and finally found out my place wasn't on it by the width of a road.


Shocking stuff from IW.

average_runner

Nermal wrote: »

No you don’t.

Yes I do. When you add in PRSI, Income Tax, USC, VAT, property tax, Diesel tax, BKI on Health Insurance and I am probably missing some more.

average_runner

unkel wrote: »

With respect, nobody pays over 50% of their income in taxes in this country.

Include all the indirect taxes on your income and you do.

average_runner

unkel wrote: »

My youngest child has been sick with an upset stomach for the last few days. She drinks a lot of water. Could be worse if I hadn't copped onto the fact the Lucan gets the Leixlip water supply and I have been boiling her drinking water since last night.

Not saying this is related, I don't know. But it's a bit of a coincidence though isn't it? Several other people in my whatsapp group from my small estate (<100 houses) have reported similar issues

Mistakes can be made, but the incompetency not to have Lucan included on their list is inexcusable imho :mad:

Lucan were included on the original map but very hard to see it.
A good few are currently sick and stomach cramps and the runs are a part of it and can spread to the rest of the family

givyjoe

Sleeper12 wrote: »

I love how once a boil water notice hits Dublin there is an outcry. This will effect us for another day, two at most. There have been parts of the country that had to boil water for well over a year & no outcry. Our water system is a shambles & will continue to be a shambles until people pay water charges. real water charges, not the pretendy "it's in our taxes" nonsense

Why are you quoting my post, if you're not going to address any of the points I actually made? Water charges, or lack thereof, are not related to the incompetence of staff and the complete mishandling of the communication of this particular notice.

cherryghost

The map was still wrong this morning. Im based in Bawnogue area where we were covered, and our creche down the road was not. Lunchtime today, now its covered. Thankfully the creche took precautions anyway.

PhilOssophy

We have 2 options for in this country
1. Get used to this kind of crap
2. Fund water services properly. If the govt stop giving everyone a fiver in every budget and say they are putting it into water infrastructure, it would be a good days work.

A sensible debate on the one public service we can't survive without is badly needed, and take the bloody politics out of the equation FFS.

average_runner

PhilOssophy wrote: »

We have 2 options for in this country
1. Get used to this kind of crap
2. Fund water services properly. If the govt stop giving everyone a fiver in every budget and say they are putting it into water infrastructure, it would be a good days work.

A sensible debate on the one public service we can't survive without is badly needed, and take the bloody politics out of the equation FFS.

If only you could trust the government

highdef

Sir Oxman wrote: »

The map they issued was kindergarten stuff, low res, non-zoomable.
Had to rely on someone posting the Leixlip BWN map as a comment on Irish Water';s twitter account

https://irishwater.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=56937c0ed9594e3a8d3b480571402a00&fbclid=IwAR0ZtLNtRouwU-UBsDhJLNGOA5sPdwSRkKByfD6OJgGC14f6tL1FL8LUX0Q

with which you can zoom into street level.

How do you see the water supply in other parts of the country? I'm being asked to sign in but I don't have an account and not sure if I can create one without a fee as I see "Enterprise logon"

1874

givyjoe wrote: »

Water charges do not solve the issue of incompetent staff and mismanagement. Irish waters handling of the issue has been nothing short of a shambles.

People dont have the time to keep up with all the failings of organisations of the state, off the top of my head there was a huge spill off the east coast from around Louth, this and no doubt countless others, if anyone thinks that paying IW was going to or ever was going to fix the problem then they are deluded, because the amount paid in would not cover it imo. IW who were giving themselves bonuses off the bat when it barely got going as an organisation. Access to clean water is IMO a basic necessity of a functioning non third world nation, I would say its shameful to state that as I think there are likely 3rd world nations that do a better job of it then us. The reality is, in the main, the mindset around IW seems only to have been to extract mney from us and it didnt work, Id have happily paid if I thought we were at the start of a fully thought out plan to rethink water supply, but in reality, I dont think it can ever happen, by not progressing on something as basic/essential/critical as this, I wonder how we are actually functioning at all as a nation, I think we are teetering from one disaster to another, and if they could get away with it, we would not ven be told by the powers that be or the people charged with (and paid for) the job of managing whats in their remit.

Sleeper12 wrote: »

I love how once a boil water notice hits Dublin there is an outcry. This will effect us for another day, two at most. There have been parts of the country that had to boil water for well over a year & no outcry. Our water system is a shambles & will continue to be a shambles until people pay water charges. real water charges, not the pretend "it's in our taxes" nonsense

Look, that attitude doesnt solve anything, people complaining about a specific area in a specific forum doesnt mean they are disregarding wherever you are referring to, but I detest that response, the parochial Im going to turn this into an us/vs them, rural vs urban problem, the people who come up with comments like that IMO are helping (and probably happy to do so) those who have essentially through inaction, incompetence or negligence foisted this upon us all, WE are all in the same barrel, so I think less of the help them divide and conquer us please. You may as well have said its those politicians up there in Dublin and so on, we are all being taken for a ride and its not funny.
Probably get someone on about taking water from the Shannon next.

Sleeper12 wrote: »

Here's the thing about water charges. Lots & lots of people pay no income tax. Not a penny. Low paid, unemployed, OAPs etc. 100s of 1000s of people paying no income tax yet getting the same services as you. Water charges if properly introduced would would catch all of these. Not the nonsense FG tried to bring in e.g. everyone pays but the water allowance exempts most OAPs, people living alone & families. This stupidity meant that the people caught for water charges were going to pay a small fortune because so many would be exempt. My household with four adults would have been paying 1200/1500 per year.

We need water charges where everyone pays. From newborn babies to OAPs. No allowance. Every 100 liters charged BUT at a much lower rate than FG wanted to charge. The present system doesn't raise enough money to improve the system AND far too many people get away without paying a penny towards water leaving you & me to carry the load.

THERE IS NO COMPREHENSIVE PLAN, not any kind of national strategy to fix the problems, leaks, treatment, a national debate, how about that, before we pay for anything? How long has IW been in existence? what have they come up with other than take their pay? (and bonuses), surely they are responsible for a national plan? How about this? we cut it out of the USC (tax) take?
That way it'll seem like we arent even being gouged so much.
Whatever of old people, charging babies is a new one on me, you must be FG through and through.
The reality is, people (Adults) should all contribute, all that money should be ringfenced for water projects, that said, I dont it would scratch the surface as to what is required to fix the problem, so extracting more and more money from people wont work if there is no improvements, for improvements you need a plan, implement it, doing anything at this point would help, IW just seem to exist? another excuse to have another body that isnt able to do anything and doesnt.

Sleeper12 wrote: »

BUT the 600K were fully aware that parts of Ireland had boil notice for longer than a year & there was no outcry. They didn't care. Plain & simple.

People have enough on their plate, maybe most just mange to get by,

average_runner wrote: »

Yes I do. When you add in PRSI, Income Tax, USC, VAT, property tax, Diesel tax, BKI on Health Insurance and I am probably missing some more.

The reality is, our tax system, helps hide what we pay, I dont know if other countries have a similar system but it seems to allow for tinkering with taxation without it being political suicide. IMO tax credits shouldnt exist, just lower the effective tax rate and show us what it is without us having to work it out, all taxation should be ditributed to necessary projects and supplemented by loans and NOT simply a case of going into one big pot so we can see what value we are getting, as it stands, I dont think we can see, and I dont think they know themsleves (they being the Depts and organisations that spend our money, ie the tax). They dont want it to be known it seems, or have no interest or never even thought of it.

PhilOssophy wrote: »

We have 2 options for in this country
1. Get used to this kind of crap
2. Fund water services properly. If the govt stop giving everyone a fiver in every budget and say they are putting it into water infrastructure, it would be a good days work.
A sensible debate on the one public service we can't survive without is badly needed, and take the bloody politics out of the equation FFS.

I dont know if we have 2 options, another one would be, treat our own water, Im already considering that, given Im in the catchment area of the contaminated water supply, I havent seen anything official stating what the problem was, outside of officialdom Ive seen that there could be water cysts, Crypto and Feacal Coliforms in the supply, no bloody wonder I was sick for days last week, how long was it going on FFS?
If I am to pay anything, I want to know how much IW costs, how much they spend, how much benefit we receive, ie are we getting clean water, if not why not, where are the problems, why, what is the national plan/strategy for upgrading/improving/replacing the water supply infrastructure, otherwise it just seems Id be paying to prop up IW or something else, ie the tax pot.

Sir Oxman

highdef wrote: »

How do you see the water supply in other parts of the country? I'm being asked to sign in but I don't have an account and not sure if I can create one without a fee as I see "Enterprise logon"

I honestly don't know.
that one map can be searched but only for those areas served by Leixlip


I'm not an account holder with them.

Sleeper12

1874 wrote:

Look, that attitude doesnt solve anything, people complaining about a specific area in a specific forum doesnt mean they are disregarding wherever you are referring to, but I detest that response, the parochial Im going to turn this into an us/vs them, rural vs urban problem, the people who come up with comments like that IMO are helping (and probably happy to do so) those who have essentially through inaction, incompetence or negligence foisted this upon us all, WE are all in the same barrel, so I think less of the help them divide and conquer us please. You may as well have said its those politicians up there in Dublin and so on, we are all being taken for a ride and its not funny. Probably get someone on about taking water from the Shannon next.

I live in Dublin and I always have. I just find it laughable at the outrage at Irish water now that we have a boil notice for a few days & the same people couldn't give a toss about parts of ire that had boil notices for longer than a year. The County folk must be laughing at us outraged over a minor inconvenience. Someone else said they weren't aware of parts of the country having boil notices for long periods of time yet its on the news daily. It was repeated daily during the water meter protests. People live in their own little bubble. That's all I was saying

average_runner

Sleeper12 wrote: »

I live in Dublin and I always have. I just find it laughable at the outrage at Irish water now that we have a boil notice for a few days & the same people couldn't give a toss about parts of ire that had boil notices for longer than a year. The County folk must be laughing at us outraged over a minor inconvenience. Someone else said they weren't aware of parts of the country having boil notices for long periods of time yet its on the news daily. It was repeated daily during the water meter protests. People live in their own little bubble. That's all I was saying

Because the Irish way is not to care once it doesn't affect them. We have a very bad culture in this country.

Sleeper12

http://www.rte.ie/news/2019/1025/1085543-boil-notice/

Still no Raheny or Lucan on the list yet part of both areas are effected.

On pat Kenny this morning : part of Ennis had a boil water notice alert for over 3 years and somewhere else listed on Irish water website has same notice since January this year

average_runner

Use this link, u can enter your address:
https://irishwater.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=56937c0ed9594e3a8d3b480571402a00

DaveyDave

Glad I have some effervescent vitamin tablets around because boiled water tastes odd, maybe the kettle was boiled too many times...

Can we get some sort of email or text notification for when it's safe does anyone know? Nothing posted to the house or anything, if it wasn't for randomly seeing this thread on the main page or getting an email in work I wouldn't have known. Lucky I was on shift the day it started so could see the email.

average_runner

DaveyDave wrote: »

Glad I have some effervescent vitamin tablets around because boiled water tastes odd, maybe the kettle was boiled too many times...

Can we get some sort of email or text notification for when it's safe does anyone know? Nothing posted to the house or anything, if it wasn't for randomly seeing this thread on the main page or getting an email in work I wouldn't have known. Lucky I was on shift the day it started so could see the email.

Twitter is your best bet

bren2001

It's been lifted. Drink away!

unkel

DaveyDave wrote: »

boiled water tastes odd

Kids were giving out hell, luckily our local Centra (Griffeen Ave) had plenty of still water bottles.

Only realised today that although I didn't drink tap water myself since I spotted the stupid omission of Lucan in the IW list (and started this thread) that I have been consuming a good 12 ice cubes a day, like I always do, made with....


...tap water

I'm fine though and my little girl is fine now too. Quite likely her stomach cramps the last few days were indeed caused by the Cryptosporidium parasite

I hear there was a similar issue at the Leixlip plant earlier this year. Recommendations were put in place yet it happened again soon after. I hear IW will have to explain themselves at some sort of public accounts committee. We shall keep this thread alive to cover all of that, but I guess it will also be covered on some of the main forums like current affairs.

DaveyDave

Good to hear you guys are ok. I was feeling a little sketchy the morning the boil notice was issued, possibly just a coincidence, although I didn't really eat anything during the week just pasta and cereal in work. Wouldn't really be surprised if they were late with the notice, but it's resolved now at least.

It will be interesting to see if anything comes of them having the same issue in a short space of time, especially as there's quite a large number effected.

1874

bren2001 wrote: »

It's been lifted. Drink away!

well I suppose we can expect the mains supply is ok? was there an official update on it being ok? not on twitter myself, i suppose as i dont watch mainstream tv i should consider setting up an account for state bodies that might deal with emergencies. Did they ever clarify what the cause of the problem was and what was actually in the water? its possible this affected a lot of people but some categories will be more susceptible than others or it might be seriously dangerous for them to be in the situation of consuming contamibated water.

Sleeper12

1874 wrote:

well I suppose we can expect the mains supply is ok? was there an official update on it being ok? not on twitter myself, i suppose as i dont watch mainstream tv i should consider setting up an account for state bodies that might deal with emergencies. Did they ever clarify what the cause of the problem was and what was actually in the water? its possible this affected a lot of people but some categories will be more susceptible than others or it might be seriously dangerous for them to be in the situation of consuming contamibated water.

Lifted sin Friday evening. Every radio station & news outlet covered this.

They are being a bit cagey about what went wrong. A section of water didn't get the full treatment & wasn't up to the usual safety standards. These things happen and this isn't the real issue imo. Alarms that were supposed to go off didn't go off & the way Irish water half heartedly warned the public is the real issue here.

Only a few months ago a large amount of natural gas wasn't treated. It's oderless so they have to add the gas smell. When they realised what happened they immediately got the media to warn people not to use the gas. They wanted to pump it full circle so they could treat it at the plant.

Mistakes happen and this is fine. Its how they are handled once discovered that is the important thing.

1874

Sleeper12 wrote: »

Lifted sin Friday evening. Every radio station & news outlet covered this.

They are being a bit cagey about what went wrong. A section of water didn't get the full treatment & wasn't up to the usual safety standards. These things happen and this isn't the real issue imo. Alarms that were supposed to go off didn't go off & the way Irish water half heartedly warned the public is the real issue here.

Only a few months ago a large amount of natural gas wasn't treated. It's oderless so they have to add the gas smell. When they realised what happened they immediately got the media to warn people not to use the gas. They wanted to pump it full circle so they could treat it at the plant.

Mistakes happen and this is fine. Its how they are handled once discovered that is the important thing.

I dont watch tv, I dont have an account, have not for years, as much as I probably should listen to the news on the radio, I usually listen for entertainment to switch off, I dont switch it on for news. I pay attention to the news online and I saw nothing there, although I dont connect to RTE, Id have thought it should have been a headlined item for national news online elsewhere, I didnt come across it, have since been told there was an incident related to water quality earlier in the year which was not reported at all.


Maybe Im just being a bit paranoid, but I just watched "Rotten" on netflix and the episode on water Wherever a failure in public water supply apparently exists (whether true or not) the blame seems to be placed on limited funding and the gap is subsequently or consequently filled by privatisation of public/national resources of water in that State/Region, usually by a major international corporation, in particular one corporation. This corporation would sell us air if we were stupid enough to buy it.

My impression of FG is that it isnt a completely implausible scenario that they are being lobbied and IW is being arranged to be a failure on purpose or that no effort is made to make it competent, ie intentionally transferring staff from existing state bodies or hiring staff without the professional background to make it successful or simply that and/or not giving them the resources to do the job at hand.


I agree that how these things are responded to is important, but there needs to be redundancy in a system that can affect so many people, there needs to be internal alarms ringing so that problems can be reported and addressed rapidly, and complete transparency about what occured, how it occured, how it was resolved and how it will be be prevented from recurring, at the least that would build some confidence in IW and any future public experience with them and may persuade people of the importance of public supplied water and its cost effectiveness, the situation and response makes me not feel confident about IW at all.