Management at City Hall has criticised Uisce Éireann for communications shortcomings during water outages in the city earlier this Winter that cost businesses tens of thousands of euro in lost revenue.

Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Leonard Cleary, wrote to the State company to highlight deficiencies in its communications with city businesses during a three-day water supply outage in Galway last November.

A burst water main caused weekend outages for city centre businesses from November 28-30.

This resulted in a continuous lack of supply, and caused “significant hardship” for hotels, bars and restaurants in Eyre Square and Middle Street, Mr Cleary said in a letter to Uisce Éireann.

The Galway City Tribune reported previously that retail and hospitality sectors in the city had expected a bumper weekend due to the Black Friday sales, but many had to shut their doors due to the water outage – which cost them dearly in lost income.

“Galway is a city of culture and has significant tourism population particularly in this area of the city. The businesses have indicated that the information being provided [to them by Uisce Éireann] was not the most up-to-date and some had to close for a time or refund money,” Mr Cleary told Margaret Attridge, Head of Water Operations, in a letter seen by the Tribune.

He said the issue lasted into a third day and he had a “concern” around the communication between Uisce Éireann and the businesses, and “listening to their concerns”.

Mr Cleary said there was information available from the “very busy operational team on the ground that was under pressure to fix the very complex issue” but he asked what contingency plan Uisce Éireann had in place to provide a back-up water supply to retailers and hospitality businesses impacted.

Pictured: Leonard Cleary: Communications and support “most definitely lacking”.