Plight of Mayo communities left without piped water highlighted

A Mayo TD has highlighted the problems facing residents of Carrowteige, Porturlin, Srahataggle and Portacloy who are all desperate to avail of a new community water connection.

Deputy Alan Dillon stated: "It is hard to believe that in 2022, rural dwellers in Erris are still without a piped water supply.

"This is severely impacting their living standards and quality of life.

"Hundreds of signatures have been gathered from local residents allowing Mayo County Council engineers to assess the proposed scheme for inclusion in the future multi-annual rural water programme, benefiting these four rural Mayo communities.

"A pre-water connection was submitted to Irish Water for this new community water scheme, which was deemed to be feasible.

"My concern is that Mayo County Council has yet to receive the framework for the submission process from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to submit their funding bids for the new four-year cycle."

In response, Minister Darragh O'Brien said he is completely in agreement on the importance of the community water connections under the upcoming multi-annual rural water programme that runs to 2025.

"In respect of the time-frames, the working group is currently finalising a report due.

"That should be with me in the coming weeks to make recommendations.

"We want the process to move on now," he stated.