TDs and Senators submitted 4,800 inquiries to Irish Water last year

Irish water was inundated with more than 4,800 representations from TDs and Senators last year.

Independent TD Mattie McGrath submitted about one in 13 of these requests — and made more than one request every day.

Mr McGrath’s 374 separate inquiries to Irish Water were almost three times the next highest number received from an Oireachtas member.

Only three Oireachtas members filed more than 100 statements, with Fianna Fáil’s Cathal Crowe filing 128 and Kerry’s TD Michael Healy-Rae 112.

When asked about the sheer volume of statements submitted – including 50 in November alone – Mr McGrath said: “We’ve had people on commercial tariffs wanting to switch to residential tariffs, but it’s been impossible to get answers from them.

“We found a person 18 meters away from a sewage collection where they charge €18,000 to hook him up.

“We have water spurts, water leaks, people can’t get through. The service is just appalling and has deteriorated dramatically.

“There is no follow-up when we raise issues. I might as well be talking to the wall and it seems like it’s her path or the highway.

“It’s so frustrating and it seems like you’re a nuisance to them. It’s an absolute nightmare.”

Meanwhile, there were a further 26 TDs, or Senators, who have made at least 50 inquiries to Irish Water in the past year, according to records.

These included Fianna Fáil’s Timmy Dooley at 97, Fianna Fáil’s James Browne at 88 and independent TD Michael Lowry at 79. A number of government ministers also submitted large numbers of applications.

Of the 4,857 individual representations received by the water company, approximately one in ten related to individuals or companies seeking new connections.

There were just over 900 representations of water and sanitation infrastructure and 267 where a person had no water supply.

A statement from Irish Water said they welcomed contact from TDs and Senators and had set up a dedicated support desk to handle queries.

“In addition to responding to inquiries from elected representatives, we also provide regular proactive updates regarding operations and capital investments.

“The size and scale of work being undertaken by Irish Water across the country is significant, with planned investments of over €5.2 billion in public water and sanitation services over the period 2020-2024,” it said.