Cllr questions Uisce Eireann over progress delays in delivering water infrastructure

Trim councillor Noel French has hit out at Uisce Éireann over the delay in progressing the new water treatment plant to serve the town and surrounding areas as the existing plant struggles to keep up with demand resulting in regular night time restrictions.

Given that planning was granted in August 2023 and works are not scheduled to start until this year, Cllr French has questioned how urgently Uisce Éireann are treating the situation.

“It was due to commence in 2024 and here we are in 2025 and they hope to start at the end of 2025. We were told that it would take a year and a half to build but judging by existing delivery of projects that could be much longer so my guess is that it will take three to five years to put the new treatment plant in place and make it operational and then my opinion is that this new plant will be too small to cope with all the new developments and will need to be upgraded.”

With night time restrictions a regular occurrence for the 12,000 consumers in Trim and Rathmolyon, he said: “I am not sure how people are accepting this situation. Enfield had a bad problem with water supply a few years ago and all the people started campaigning to get something done and it was and since then I have had only only difficulty with Irish Water in Enfield. Before that it was sometimes 20 times a month.”

Cllr French said that Uisce Éireann are now negotiating their three year budget with the Government and he will be asking for Uisce Éireann to meet with local councillors again as soon as possible.

“Water has been tankered in to Ballivor and Clonard over the past number of years for long periods of time. In Ballivor’s case the water came from Trim! So where this new water for tankers for Trim is coming from I am not sure!”