This article is from page 13 of the 2006-02-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
THE body charged with supplying and ensuring that 30,000 residents in the greater Ennis area have safe, clean drinking water increased its spend on bottled water by 50 per cent last year.
Figures released to The Clare People through the Freedom of Information Act, show that Clare County Council increased its spend on bottled water for its 900 staff by 50 per cent, from €13,723 in 2004 to €20,821 in 2005.
The massive increase in the spend on bottled water coincided with the county council, along with the Health Service Executive (HSE) and Ennis Town Council imposing three separate “boil notices” on the Ennis water supply last year.
A spokesman for the HSE confirmed yesterday that €26,000 was spent on bottled water at Ennis General Hospital.
“This is obviously an exceptionally high amount and is obviously connected to the problems with the water supply in Ennis,” he said.
Councillor Brian Meaney (GP) said yesterday: “the amount spent on bottled water by Clare County Council last year is yet another example of the loose attitude by the council towards taxpayers’ money.”
Cllr Meaney said that it was “ironic in the extreme that the organisation responsible for providing water to a safe, potable standard should increase its spend on a massive scale last year.
“The town council has consistently said that the water is as good as anywhere else in the country, but the employees and people ordering bottled water at the county council obviously don’t agree, if the amount spent on bottled water at the council last year is anything to go by.
“While the additional spend on water by the council is being funded by the tax-payer, what recompense is there for facilities across the greater Ennis area, including crèches and homes for the elderly, where there is no sign of any subvention coming from the state for the additional costs incurred?”
The costs for crèches and other facilities that look after the very young and those prone to infection, continues, as the partial ‘boil notice’ remains in place.
A temporary solution to the problem is expected to be in place by April while a new treatment plant is anticipated to be in place by October 2007. On a recent visit to Ennis, the Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche described as “nuts” the need for continuous boil notices in a town the size of Ennis.