This article is from page 13 of the 2006-12-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
PUBLIC confidence in the ability of Clare County Council engineers to deal with Ennis’ water quality problem has reached a new low, Monday’s monthly meeting of the local authority heard.
Ennis area councillors Brian Meaney and Joe Carey hit out at the council’s efforts to solve the drinking water problems that have beset the county capital in recent years. Both have called for new measures to address the problem, Cllr Meaney (GP) backing a curb on future development in Ennis and Cllr Carey (FG) calling for the introduction of a voucher system for those buying bottled water.
“The people of Ennis are very angry,” warned Cllr Carey. “And they have a very low degree of confidence in the water service. They are spending between €20 and €30 a week on water and have being doing this for the past two years. It’s unacceptable.
“Ennis is one of the fastest growing towns in Europe and it doesn’t have a clean water system. It’s shocking and it’s not on. I’ve proposed in the past about getting another source of water, but that was not listened to.
“Now the issue is dragging on and public confidence is at a very low ebb. I want assurances about when the boil notice will be lifted. There should be a voucher system in place for people who are spending €20 to €30 a week,” added Cllr Carey.
“We’re in a most appalling situation with the water in Ennis,” said Cllr Brian Meaney (GP). “There is very little confidence with what’s being done with Ennis’ water.
“Maybe we should look at the development of the town – if we took a stance that there would be no additions to the water supply, then we might see motivations coming where there would be a sufficient response to the water quality problem,” added the deputy mayor.
Responding, county engineer Tom Carey said “modifications to the system are a very significant step towards the removal of the current boil notice in the near future.”
A boil notice was placed on water in Ennis on November 24.