Water outage on December 25th for second year

BY JACKIE KEOGH and MARTIN STEINMETZ

RESIDENTS of Shannonvale and Ballinascarthy were left without water on Christmas Day for the second year in a row.

The taps ran dry for dozens of households at around 8am on the morning of December 25th, with repairs taking until the afternoon on St Stephen’s Day.

Alan Dromey, chairman of Shannonvale Community Group, said this year’s outage was even worse than 2024 because it took longer to resolve.

The disruption affected not only families and the elderly, it also impacted farming and the operation of a number of local businesses.

Uisce Éireann engineers had installed a pressure release valve near the affected area in October after regular supply disruptions this year, both planned and unplanned, but it did not prevent the untimely outage.

‘Losing water once is bad enough, but to lose supply two Christmas days in a row is totally unacceptable,’ said Mr Dromey.

‘It has stretched the patience of residents beyond what is rational and they are demanding a permanent fix.’

Mr Dromey said the outage occurred in the same place as last year, leaving residents ‘extremely frustrated and understandably annoyed’.

He said there have been more than ten highly disruptive water breaks over the last two years, including five in five weeks from the last week in August to the first week of October 2025.

Mr Dromey described constant repairs, followed by the installation of the high-pressure release valve in October, a ‘an enormous waste of money’, adding: ‘For the time and money spent installing the pressure release valve, the faulty line could have been dug up and replaced.’

The domestic supply of water is pumped from low ground up the hill to Shannonvale, and that the valve was installed to regulate the pressure with a view to protect the line, but it failed.

Residents are outraged over the manner in which UE addressed the latest outage. In an email to residents the utility provider wrote: ‘Dear customer, there are unscheduled works from 10am today that may cause disruption in your area.’

On its website on Christmas Day, the water utility company said it was investigating an issue. As with the previous breaks the repair crew arrived with a digger, a tractor and trailer to cut out a piece of faulty pipe.

‘Water is a basic necessity and the continual breaks, and the promises of solutions, are hugely frustrating, when the solution is simple: replace the faulty line,’ said Mr Dromey.

‘Again, this year, it ruined the biggest holiday of the year because people had to change their plans and go elsewhere to family and friends instead of spending it at home.

‘The time has come for Uisce Éireann to clearly explain why this keeps happening and set out a firm timeline for a permanent fix. People deserve reliability and respect from their public utilities. Communities shouldn’t be left living in uncertainty every time pressure drops or the system fails.’

A spokesman for Uisce Éireann said crews worked over the holiday period to restore supply following a mains burst at around 5am on Christmas Day.

He added: ‘We understand the disruption this caused and appreciate the patience of the local community while emergency works were carried out.’