HOTELS, pubs, restaurants, as well as service and retail outlets in the heart of Galway city, are estimated to have suffered a financial hit totalling hundreds of thousands of euros due to a water outage last weekend.

The water cut-off for city centre businesses started on Thursday last [Nov. 28] and continued until lunchtime on Saturday, forcing some pubs and restaurant to close their doors on one of their busiest nights [Friday] of the year.

Frustrated proprietors have told the Connacht Tribune that the problem was at its worst through Friday and into Saturday morning with ‘mixed messages’ coming back to them from Uisce Éireann as to when the supply would be restored.

With thousands of people visiting the city for the ‘Black Friday’ sales it had been expected to be one of the busiest nights of the year for the hospitality sector in the centre of Galway city.

Paul Grealish, Proprietor of the King’s Head pub/restaurant and live entertainment centre, told the Connacht Tribune, that they had been left with no choice on Friday but to close their doors at 9.30pm on what should have been one of their busiest nights of the year.

“We lost tens of thousands of euros because of the water outage and we got absolutely no satisfaction at all when we tried to contact Uisce Éireann [Irish Water] in a bid to establish what time the supply would be restored.

“Our business and many more in the centre of the city found themselves in the same situation and none of us could get any hard and fast information as to when the supply would be restored,” said Paul Grealish.

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