An elderly woman in South Kerry went to the church to pray for water during the restrictions.
That’s according to Fianna Fáil’s Tommy Cahill who was speaking at today’s full meeting of Kerry County Council.
Councillors slammed Uisce Éireann for their communications during the water outages.
Meanwhile, an emergency motion calling for additional funding to increase water capacity in the county was passed.
Cllr Tommy Griffin tabled the emergency motion seeking urgent investment to increase storage at the Mid Kerry water supply scheme.
It followed what the Fine Gael councillor described as a “catastrophic collapse” of water supply during the warm weather.
He stated there is a lack of capacity at the Barleymount, Laharn and Knockavota plants and said it’s a serious problem that so many restrictions were placed on Mid Kerry, so early in to the warm weather.
Cllr Griffin believes the restrictions and outages were not down to breaks, but due to the capacity issues.
Fianna Fáil councillor Fionnán Fitzgerald seconded the motion, stating it’s clear from the past week that water infrastructure in Kerry is under major pressure.
He added that Uisce Éireann does not have a reliable communication service for the county, that councillors were in the dark from the utility, and only for the people on the ground they wouldn’t know what was happening.
Cllr Tommy Cahill said the issues have caused huge stress countywide, in particular for farmers and the elderly.
He highlighted one phone call he received, from a woman who was going in to her church to pray about water; he said people being in these scenarios is completely unacceptable and the utility need to be held to account.
Supporting the motion, Cllr Brendan Cronin echoed the calls and highlighted issues at Lahard; adding demand has quadrupled and far exceeds capacity there.
Tralee councillor Sam Lacke stated if capacity is not available, reservoirs like in Curraheen must be reopened.
Meanwhile, Kerry councillors have called on Uisce Éireann to provide a liaison officer to the council.
It follows an emergency motion by Sinn Féin councillor Deirdre Ferris, moved by her party colleague, Cllr Paul Daly.
The motion which was supported in the chamber, seeks for a dedicated liaison officer to be in operation for up-to-date communications to members during water outages in Kerry.
