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30 Dec 2025
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30 Dec 2025
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WESTPORT councillors have criticised Uisce Éireann and Mayo County Council for not having a person for local councillors to contact if there is a water emergency.
Members of the Westport/Belmullet Municipal District were informed there was no person in Mayo County Council to liaise with Uisce Éireann in case of an emergency.
Westport-based councillor Brendan Mulroy asked the question after he claimed that employees of Uisce Éireann were told by their employers not to answer the phone to local councillors.
“Where is our point of contact? We have no point of contact to get out on the ground in ten minutes and that is a problem. Uisce Éireann are telling workers not to be dealing with councillors and I appreciate that. I don't want to put workers under pressure but for the people it is problematic,” he said.
READ: No 'quick fix' to solving Mayo community's water supply problems
The Fianna Fáil councillor said in the past local councillors were able to contact someone dealing with water leaks if there was an emergency and the fault would be quickly resolved. Now he claimed it could be days before someone is on the ground to fix a problem.
Cllr Brendan Mulroy
“If we go through the representative line and contact Uisce Éireann it will take three to four days for anyone to turn up.
“Right now if there was a leak tomorrow in the centre of Westport it would be problematic. Before this the problem could be resolved before it was even logged on the system,” he said.
He was supported by Fine Gael councillor Peter Flynn who said that contacting a help desk will not resolve emergencies quickly and it is becoming frustrating for councillors and members of the public.
“Who is the person we can contact in an emergency?” he asked. “We should have a person to ring in critical situations.”
Head of Water Services, Michael Heneghan confirmed that Uisce Éireann will have to be contacted if there are issues and there is no point of contact within Mayo County Council.
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