Chairman of Dundalk Municipal District embarrassed as film crew ask about ‘brown water’

The chairperson of Dundalk Municipal District Cllr Kevin Meenan has said he was embarrassed when a film production crew that was in town recently asked him what was the story with the water.

He said he had been introduced to some of the production crew who were in town filming in Blackrock, the Spirit Store and New Street for a major production starring Michael Fassbender and other big names.

"The first thing they said was ‘what’s the story with the water?” he told the Municipal District monthly meeting. “The chef nearly had a heart attack when he saw the water was brown.”

He made the comments after Cllr Sean Kelly had asked if the Council had received any response from Irish Water in relation to the councillors’ request for a visit to the Cavan Hill water treatment plant which supplies water for the town of Dundalk.

They had agreed at the February meeting to request a visit to Cavan Hill in light of the on-going issues over the town’s water supply.

Cllr Kelly said that while he didn’t think it was possible, Irish Water’s dealings with councillors had actually got worse.

“How they deal with public representatives is appalling,” he said, citing two recent instances  in which he had contacted the company about problems in different areas of town.

In one case he claimed that Irish Water had told him that it wouldn’t fix a leak in the ‘Happy Valley’ area of town as it was on private property, even though neighbouring properties were affected. In another instance, they dad asked him to supply Eircodes when he had contacted them about problems in three housing estates.

He asked that the Council resend their request for a visit to Cavan Hill to the CEO of Irish Water and it they don’t get a response to take it up with the Minister responsible.