Fianna Fáil councillor Blackie Gavin has called for action to be taken on ensuring that a small townland gets connected to a group water scheme. Cllr Gavin told a meeting of the Water and Sewerage SPC: “The Derrymartin group water scheme has eight houses in it and it’s been waiting for a connection to a proper service for years. I’ve brought this case up on numerous times and I want to see some action taken on this finally. The people who live there are in a desperate state, they are right beside the treatment plant too. I’m asking you to please do something about this, it’s 2011 and it’s not good enough.”
Mr Ger Munnelly, senior engineer with Mayo County Council, told Cllr Gavin: “We have had a proposed scheme for there included on a list since 2008. It’s just one area on a long list with plenty of other places ahead of it. We have included it on the list again this year, but it all depends on money, basically if we don’t have the money we can’t do it.”
Sinn Féin councillor Rose Conway-Walsh asked Mr Munnelly what kind of money the council expects to get this year for rural water services. Mr Munnelly told her: “Last year we got €100,000, but we just don’t know this year yet. There was a time a few years ago we used to get €1 million, but that’s not going to happen in the near future.”
