Connacht Tribune
Irish Water to focus on Gort supply issues
Irish Water chiefs have committed to a renewed focus on Gort as recurring problems continue to blight the town’s water services.
Following a meeting with local representatives, Deputy Ciarán Cannon (FG) and Cllr Joe Byrne (FG), the public water body has sought to reassure residents that works have, and will continue to be carried out to avoid future supply interruptions and bad smells caused by wastewater leaks.
Deputy Cannon said while a new treated-water storage reservoir was completed in 2022, Gort’s water supply was once again brought to its knees in the run up to Christmas as sub-zero conditions caused the system to malfunction.
In a letter to Deputy Cannon and Cllr Byrne, Irish Water (or Uisce Éireann as it has been rebranded) states that a “heat tracing system” has been installed to protect pipework and instrumentation from freezing conditions.
115 metres of water mains are to be replaced on Crowe Street this year and ground water investigations are ongoing to seek out additional supply.
“While this work is ongoing,” said Deputy Cannon, “we have been assured that work is already underway at the Gort Water Treatment Plant to ensure the plant can meet all drinking water quality standards consistently, and further reduce the risk of water supply interruptions.”
Deputy Cannon said in their meeting with Irish Water Engineers and their Chief Operations Officer, he and Cllr Byrne highlighted the serious issues that have arisen over the past year.
“We made it very clear that these failures in service were not acceptable and that we as public representatives for this town needed to be able to reassure people that their concerns were being taken seriously.
“The reply we have received indicates that our concerns have been taken on board, to a certain extent, but we intend to keep a close eye on developments over the coming months,” said Deputy Cannon.
This issue of recurring sewer odours in the town, particularly at Church Street, was one of the main issues addressed in the meeting, said Deputy Cannon, and Irish Water confirmed that remedial works to repair four breaks in the sewer had been carried out adjacent to Church Street, while CCTV surveying of the wastewater pipe network continued.
A full rehabilitation of 130 metres of sewer piping at George’s Street is also set to take place.
Cllr Byrne said this was their first opportunity to meet with senior management of Irish Water to address these issues.
“We made it quite clear that the kind of failures experienced recently in Gort would not be tolerated in the future. The work ongoing right now in terms of both water and wastewater infrastructure should lead to improvements.
“In the long term, if the town’s wastewater treatment system is to perform satisfactorily, we need to see better venting of odours, and better management of stormwater. We will continue to make the case for these improvements,” said Cllr Byrne.
Poor communications with public representatives and local residents when issues arose was a constant problem, added Deputy Cannon.
“We need to be notified of why issues have arisen, what is being done to resolve them and what is being done to ensure that they do not happen again.
“Joe and I will be insisting on open and effective lines of communication with Irish Water engineers and we will be reverting to Irish Water with a request that these communication protocols are put in place immediately,” said the Fine Gael TD.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
