This article is from page 4 of the 2014-11-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
CLARE councillors will attempt to block the transfer of the county’s water infrastructure to Irish Water. This news comes in the wake of the revelation that Clare County Council, and not Irish Water, are still the legal owners of the vast majority of the county’s multi-million euro water infrastructure.
Shannon Cllr Gerry Flynn (IND), who proposed a motion to abolish Irish Water at this months meeting of the local authority, says he will investigate ways to prevent the transfer of the water assets, and may bring forward a new motion at next months meeting of Clare County Council.
The revelation came to light following a motion about the Castlecrine Reservoir discussed at the November meeting of the Killaloe Municipal District.
“This is a big revelation and the transfer of assets to Irish Water is something that we were particularly interested in.
“I will be investigating the situation and if there is something that could be done about this transfer I will bring it forward,” said Cllr Flynn.
The council’s ownership of the wa- ter infrastructure came to light following a motion put forward by Cllr Alan O’Callaghan about the status of the approach road to the Sixmilebridge reservoir.
Responding to questions, a council spokesperson conf rmed that the Castlecrine reservoir was still legally the property of Clare County Council – before going on to conf rm that all the major water infrastructure in Clare is still owned by the local authority.
Speaking on the motion, Cllr Pat Hayes (FF) said he was “astonished” that Clare County Council still owned the water infrastructure.
“I’m kind of astonished to be honest, to learn that the handover [to Irish Water] will happen in the future. Over € 1m is being spent down in Killaloe. Have Irish Water been given control of certain reservoirs but not others? There is a lot of money being spent.
“How can Irish Water be spending money is areas that they don’t own? Who is spending the money?” he said.
The council spokesperson conf rmed that money currently being spent on water and sewage projects is being spent by Clare County Council, on behalf of Irish Water.