By Dan Walsh
The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien T.D. has met with Irish Water and Wexford County Council following the contamination in drinking water at the Creagh Plant in Gorey recently and, in a statement, says the plant is “operating normally” and “producing clean water.”
Minister O’Brien said; “Irish Water has assured me that the treatment plant at Gorey (and Ballymore Eustace) is stable, operating normally and producing clean water. I am pleased that Irish Water and the local authorities are working together in full co-operation to put in place urgent corrective measures.”
Unsafe water leaving the plant at Creagh over a five-day period led to 52 confirmed illnesses and several hospital admissions.
The Minister noted that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) had issued audit reports on the incident at Gorey.
“The EPA’s action in pointing out the seriousness of the failures at Gorey is crucial in ensuring that my Department, Irish Water and the local government system responded promptly and appropriately to immediately address the risks of similar incidents happening elsewhere,” concluded Minister O’Brien.
The contamination of the drinking water supply from Creagh was discussed at last Monday’s monthly meeting of Wexford County Council.
Cllr Joe Sullivan requested that it be put on the record that he has full confidence in the investigation and said the perfect outcome is to ensure that it does not happen again.
He stated that the Council should engage with the people who were adversely affected by the last outrage and restore public confidence in the water supply in Gorey. “That is the way forward. No point in going back in a blame game,” concluded Cllr Sullivan.
Director of Services for Water Eamonn Hore gave a detailed report into incidents and a timetable of events at Creagh in August. There were equipment failure and human failure and he said we must ensure that an incident like this never happens again. He added the final detailed report on Creagh should be available in the next week or ten days.
WexfordLocal.com 