Council to write to Uisce Éireann over response to Storm Eowyn in Kildare

Kildare County Council is to write to Uisce Éireann requesting that councillors are provided with direct and regular communications at times of emergency response, and in the wake of Storm Eowyn.

Cllr Brendan Wyse (FG) tabled the motion at a recent Clane-Maynooth Municipal District meeting.

The motion called for specific details around the provision of tankers and locations of these, and that Uisce Éireann liaise with the municipal district and its members as part of its emergency response plan.

In his address to the committee, Cllr Wyse slated the response of Uisce Éireann during Strom Eowyn, and its level of communication with the local authority in general.

Cllr Wyse said that Uisce Eireann had quarterly meetings, and while he sent questions to these meetings in advance, “people came in and didn't know what I was talking about.”

There is a local rep support desk set up by Uisce Éireann, he said, an email address to which councillors may table questions. The last time Cllr Wyse availed of the facility, he said, it was “three months” before he received a reply from Uisce Éireann.

Cllr Wyse said that while the recent storm was unprecedented, what people are asking is that there is communication and co-ordination in Uisce Éireann's response.

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Unfortunately, he said, incidents of storms such as Storm Eowyn tend to happen at weekends when a lot of public bodies “close up shop”, leaving councillors at the frontline of communications with the general public.

Cllr Wyse pointed out that tankers were deployed by Uisce Éireann in the aftermath of Storm Eowyn, but that there was no communication as to where these were located or when they would be in place.

Cllr Wyse, voicing his frustration, said: “I'm very disappointed in Uisce Eireann, we need to write to them. I don't think much will come out of this, but you have to try, you can't just let it go on.”

Uisce Eireann, he said, appeared to be ignoring public representatives and “doing what they like”, but, he said, they are a public body and need to “up their game.”

Supporting the motion, Cllr William Durkan (FG) said it was important for bodies such as Uisce Eireann to recognise the opportunity to disseminate information during emergency events, that there are local officials on the ground with their own networks of communication.

Councillors, he said, had “full coverage” across these areas, and they were a great resource for Uisce Éireann to be able to disseminate information during times of crisis.

Also supporting the motion, Cllr Tim Durkan (FG) said Uisce Éireann had been requested on a number of occasions to come into the chamber over a “myriad of issues” in the past, but he could only remember one time when they actually came in to speak with councillors.

The silence from Uisce Eireann was “deafening”, he said, and while he accepted that crises happen, there has to be some sort of crisis management plan, rather than councillors “scrambling on Facebook” trying to determine where tankers have been deployed.

Cllr Durkan called for a public meeting with Uisce Eireann to discuss “openly and frankly a way forward as to how we fix this.”

The municipal district is now to write to Uisce Éireann requesting the terms of the motion.