Workers Party Councillor, Jerrica Struthers, is outraged at the lack of fight in the council chamber after 'briefing' for Executives from Uisce Éireann
On Tuesday the 9th of June 2026, Cork City council held a briefing with Uisce Éireann.
Members of the council were shown a graph with the complaints of 2022 shown at astronomical numbers, in comparison to the complaints on the graph from this year. Uisce Éireann proclaimed that this shows that the complaints are at zero or near zero but the Uisce Éireann representative claimed that they will “not declare a victory yet” .
Presumably, this victory will be declared when the water is no longer discoloured. However, as the new North East ward Councillor, Jerrica Struthers, asserted in the chamber, experts state that manganese, a neurotoxin that may cause brain damage, can remain in clear water at toxic levels.
BACKGROUND
In July 2022 Uisce Éireann administered excessive levels of caustic soda (sodium Hydroxide) into the water supply, causing sediment, rust, manganese and lead to be leached into the water supply. It damaged the pipes and caused many leaks. This is the battle that Uisce Éireann is close to calling a victory on. A battle against the damage that they caused to begin with.
NEW COUNCILLOR FRUSTRATED BY LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY
Jerrica Struthers is the newly co-opted Workers Party councillor for the North East ward, who has replaced veteran politician Cllr Ted Tynan. She says she was beyond frustrated to see certain local representatives thanking Uisce Éireann for meeting with them and confirming that Uisce Éireann’s numbers match the lack of complaints on the ground by the council. She expressed deep disappointment with the “lack of fight” from the chamber.
EXPERT'S WARNING
In November 2025, Professor Gabriel Scally of Bristol University told RTÉ Prime Time that he has a real concern for bottle-fed babies in Cork as "the formula milk may be made up with water that has far too much manganese in it. If that is an ongoing situation, they can really receive an extremely unhealthy dose of manganese".
Professor Scally is also dissatisfied with Uisce Éireann’s advice to Cork residents, which is not to drink discoloured water and "to run the cold water tap in the kitchen for several minutes, as this will usually restore water to a clear colour".
This, he says, "is not in keeping with the international position on manganese pollution of water supplies".
Professor Scally stated that, "it's very clear that some forms of manganese can be present in clear water at an excessive dose, and that the only safe way is to test the water for the level of manganese".
WHO WILL PAY?
Cllr Struthers said, “we are sick of being told to run the tap until the water is clear, public health experts have explicitly said that dangerous, brain damaging levels of manganese can remain completely invisible in clear water. How do you plan to deal with any possible litigation from the health issues caused by it? Will it be the people again who pays for this?”
"There is an increasing amount of evidence that it is particularly toxic for children and young people and can produce neurological problems."
Cllr Struthers also asked how Uisce Éireann executives could justify their six-figure salaries “when it’s public service workers who are doing the work”.
She was told by the Chair that her queries were “not within the remit” of the Council. Struthers said that she was extremely disappointed by the lack of desire in the chamber to find out the answers to these important questions.
Understanding that these questions are indeed not within the remit of the Council, Cllr Struthers said “on the grander scale of things, who cares about the rules, regulations and remits when public health is at stake? This is so much more important than red tape”
“Babies can’t drink safe bottled milk, People with medical issues do not have access to safe water. This is scandalous.”
A CALL FOR SOLIDARITY
Cllr Struthers also asked other representatives to work with her to demand that the important issues be answered for their constituents regardless of what Uisce Éireann briefings would like us to think. Bringing the spirit of her activist background to the chamber, she said, “no niceties and no co-operation until they give us the answers and the public accountability that we deserve, boycott all interaction. They need us more than we need them”
“Uisce Éireann wants public funding and public workers, but without public accountability. It’s time that local representatives stop being the cannon fodder for a failed utility that’s trying to privatise our water while potentially poisoning our constituents”