'Thousands' of Kildare residents without water during 'mini heat wave'

Social Democrats TD for Kildare North, Aidan Farrelly, has said that 'thousands' of residents in Kildare were once again without water in recent days, coinciding with some of the hottest weather of the year.

Deputy Farrelly has strongly criticised Uisce Éireann and the government, saying that the time has come for the government to invest in the utility once and for all.

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Deputy Farrelly said: “This past weekend was challenging enough for families to make sure their children were hydrated, or businesses stay open without getting no notice of yet another water outage in Kildare. Farmers I’ve been speaking with have been frantically trying to source water for their animals. People are sick and tired of it now.

“Uisce Éireann appealed to people to conserve water in the run up to the hot weekend, which I appreciate. But it feels like it was inevitable that yet again the people of Prosperous, Allenwood, Robertstown, Kilmeague, Coill Dubh and surrounds would be switched off on Saturday afternoon. It's still not back for many as I speak on Sunday afternoon.”

According to Deputy Farrelly, the only notification some people received was a text message from the utility an hour after the water went out, describing this as “unacceptable.”

The Kildare North TD said that the recent outage was “hard evidence that Uisce Éireann is flailing aimlessly in the face of its own crippled infrastructure, which is leading to disastrous consequences.”

He added: “I am concerned about the lack of forward planning and an abject failure from successive governments to invest in the necessary infrastructure to simply get by. Thousands of houses have been built in Kildare in recent years – our population has doubled since the early 1990s and instead of providing, successive governments have buried their heads in the sand regarding infrastructure.

"It’s high time this government steps up to make sure we get what we deserve as a county. The National Development Plan is the ideal place for Kildare to be prioritised. Key infrastructural projects will be identified here – it is essential that we see government representatives securing essential capital investment for Kildare.”