North Tipp Councillors voice strong objections against 170 kilometre Shannon Pipe

A NUMBER of North Tipp Councillors have voiced their strong objections against the construction of a proposed pipe which will pump water from the Shannon to Dublin.
Cllr Seamus Morris told last week's meeting of Nenagh Municipal District that he was “flabbergasted” by the decision taken the previous week by the government to press ahead with this controversial project. Cllr Ryan O'Meara said the thought was “hard to stomach” and Cllr Phyll Bugler said it's “very worrying” and the government was behaving in an out of date manner and taking a “sledgehammer to crack a nut.”
Cllr Morris said he couldn't believe it when he learned that the Government had given the go-ahead to go to An Bord Pleanála with the €6 Billion (up from €700 million) Eastern and Midlands Water Supply Project. “This project can potentially make the National Children's Hospital look like value for money,” he remarked. “The other galling thing is that only €250 million a year has been put aside for fixing leaks in Dublin which are the worst leakage rates in the developed world. Tipperary residents have to put up with appalling deficiencies in Water and Wastewater Services and we even have to put up with the most dangerous levels of THMs (Trihalomethanes) in our water in the country with Portroe, Cloughjordan, Silvermines and Gortagarry the worst affected areas in North Tipperary. Silvermines and Cloughjordan have no capacity at all in their Wastewater Treatment Plan and there are no works planned at this time, therefore much-needed house building is out in those areas. Seven water supply areas in Tipperary were deemed at risk in 2022.”
The councillor said he's concerned about this proposal to extract water from a Natura 2000 site and is worried that it is going against two EU directives.
He added that in 2022 Ardnacrusha had zero, “yes zero cubic metres of capacity per second for 16 days during August. I ask you where is the spare capacity in the River Shannon to pump to Dublin? This project will have a detrimental effect on our ecosystem.
“Tipperary County Council as you know has at my insistence proposed a Development Contribution Levy, which is an abstraction tax. Has a figure for this levy been included in the cost benefit analysis for the project?
“Has a needs analysis been carried out in the Mid West region for the future economic and environmental sustainability in terms of our reliance on the Shannon/Lough Derg?”
Cllr Morris said he had also written to a number of TDs asking them if the proposed abstraction of 330 million litres of water a day from Parteen will have a negative effect on the Mid-West Region? He told the Deputies that he expects answers to these and other questions because they will form part of the submission to be made on behalf of the people of the Mid-West region to An Bord Pleanála.
He also pointed out that Ashley Park in Ardcroney will be without its famous lake as the pipe will be going directly under it. “It is a turlough and the pipe will have a devastating effect. Ashley Park is a huge employer and the spin-off from it for Nenagh town is incredible.”
Cllr Bugler said she has attended public meetings in Birdhill about the pipe. “The pipe will be 170 kilometres in length and any landowner who doesn't agree to it will have his land taken away from him by a CPO. I have lived in Ballina for 30 years and sometimes I've observed that the water levels in Lough Derg are quite low. This pipe is worrying. In Ballina our tourism offering is very important for us. Will this pipe negatively impact on that? If so, then what kind of legacy will we be giving our children?
“This kind of huge infrastructural project feels archaic. It also feels like an over-reaction, like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Pumping water over such a long distance seems wrong. There must be a better way. A lot of worried people have contacted me about this over the last few days.” She suggested that desalination projects on the east coast would perhaps be a better way to go. “There are also 1.7 million people living in Dublin. Surely that's enough. We shouldn't be building more and more houses there. Where is the vision? We are too Dublin-centric. We need a wider vision.”
Cllr John Carroll said the government and the TDs have ignored the voice of the people. “Now what we need is a major demonstration of People Power.”
Cllr Ryan O'Meara said the pipe is “a major subject of concern” in his area, Cloughjordan. “This massive project is going to take huge volumes of water from our area and yet we can't get a Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrade in Cloughjordan, which is really holding us back, because we can't get new housing built. It's very hard to stomach.”