A “GLITCH” in Uisce Éireann’s website has caused mass confusion across this morning in Limerick, following a boil water notice issued yesterday evening (May 15) for some parts of the city.
A number of local councillors have hit out at the water utility after the “glitch” led to thousands across the city to believe they had been impacted by an “inadequate disinfection” issue in the Newcastle reservoir.
Uisce Éireann (UÉ) issued a boil notice on Thursday evening for some areas across the city, including Corbally, the Mill Road, Moyross, and Long Pavement.
Areas of County Clare are also included on the notice, namely Westbury, Parteen, Larkins Cross, Ardnacrusha, Shannon Banks, Knockalisheen, and Clonlara.
While the boil notice is confined to these areas only, an error on the UÉ website led residents and businesses in other areas of the city to believe they were also under the boil notice.
Speaking to Joe Nash on Limerick’s Live95 radio station this morning, Eoin O’Connell of UÉ clarified that “there was an issue or some sort of a glitch on our system, which our IT department are looking after now, whereby if you put in your eircode in any parts of Limerick City, it shows you it’s under the boil water notice. But just to reiterate here again, it’s just Corbally, Mill Road, Moyross, and Long Pavement.”
In the wake of the confusion, local councillors have hit out strongly at the water service.
Green Party councillor Seán Hartigan said he spent Thursday night speaking with UÉ after “a lot of confusion about the boil water notice, particularly for schools and businesses”.
“Bookings in businesses with no boil water notice were cancelled,” he added.
Cllr Hartigan hit out that “if Uisce Éireann cannot be trusted to manage a small local issue like this, can we trust them with delivering a €10billion pipeline connecting the Shannon to Dublin?”
He added that his party are holding a public meeting in the Kilmurry Lodge hotel at 7.30pm on June 19 to “discuss issues with the proposed abstraction of water from the Shannon to supply Dublin”.
“We have serious reservations about Uisce Éireann’s ability to manage this project, its impact on balanced regional development, and the implications for the ecology of the river,” he claimed.
Fine Gael councillor for Limerick City West also condemned UÉ for the technical error on its website, deeming it a “major communication failure that led to widespread panic”.
“This morning’s events were nothing short of disgraceful,” Cllr Butler said. “To publish such a blanket notice without verification or clarity triggered chaos, confusion, and concern among the people of Limerick.”
“As an elected representative, I found myself fielding calls and trying to manage the fallout of a situation that Irish Water should have been fully in control of,” he added.
“This isn’t just a technical glitch. It’s a serious failure in public service. The people of Limerick deserve better. Irish Water must issue a formal apology, explain how this happened, and lay out clear steps to ensure it never happens again.”
Cllr Butler also called for “an immediate investigation into the incident and for Irish Water to appear before local representatives to account for the failures witnessed today”.
According to UÉ, the notice was issued “to protect the health of customers due to possible inadequate disinfection (chlorine dosing) at the plant and leaving the Newcastle reservoir” in the Monaleen area.
UÉ said that homes and businesses on the supply line must boil water for drinking; drinks made with water; preparation of foods which are not cooked prior to eating; brushing teeth; making ice.
Ice and filtered water should also be discarded and re-made from cooled boiled water, with UÉ warning that “domestic water filters will not render water safe to drink”.
UÉ advised that drinking water experts “are working to lift the notice as quickly and as safely as possible, in consultation with the HSE”.
An Uisce Éireann representative said the utility “regrets the inconvenience to impacted customers”.
“Public health is Uisce Éireann’s number one priority and we would like to assure customers that the notice has been put in place to protect public health. We acknowledge the inconvenience caused to homes and businesses and would like to assure customers that we are working to resolve the issue and lift the notice as quickly and as safely possible.”
UÉ said that water “can be used for personal hygiene, bathing, and flushing of toilets but not for brushing teeth or gargling”.
The utility also urged caution when bathing children to ensure they do not swallow the water.
Homes and businesses can check if they included in the notice by visiting the water quality section of water.ie and entering their Eircode or by calling UÉ’s customer care helpline on 1800 278 278.
Uisce Éireann has been asked for comment.
