Water: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21
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Eoghan Kenny (LAB), Cork North-Central

I welcome these statements. I have said it on the floor of the Dáil before that the water in my hometown of Mallow is destroying every single washing machine, kettle and shower head in every single house in Mallow because it is hard water. What I always get back from the Government is that it is not bad for you.
That is fine but it is bad for the pocket and that is a fact. I am no expert on this, and I ask the Minister to go away and find out from Irish Water whether it is possible to put in a water softener at source to prevent hard water destroying these utensils in homes. Do not tell people to put a water softener into their houses because it costs about €3,000. The average working family of a mother, father and a couple of kids cannot afford this €3,000 for a water softener but every single year or two they have to buy a new showerhead, a new kettle and a new washing machine. It is simply not good enough.
The lack of sustainable good water on the north side of Cork city is an absolute shambles. At the public accounts committee recently I was informed that complaints have gone down. Is it any wonder complaints have gone down? Complaints have gone down because people are sick and tired of ringing and complaining. This is why complaints have gone down. Do not take it as any sort of evidence that good work is being done because it is not. People are sick of ringing and giving out about it. People wake up in the morning and they do not know whether they will have brown water coming out of the tap or the shower. Some people have had to bathe their children in brown water. It is simply not good enough.
I want to focus on council staff who are now employed by Irish Water. This is something that has come up on the doorsteps on a number of occasions with employees themselves and with their family members. I do not understand it. They have the local knowledge. In some instances, it has been referred to me that Irish Water has sent out engineers who then ring local staff who have worked with the local authority to try to get the work done. There are a number of issues and I ask the Minister to go away and work on them.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-31T01:00:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-21