Work on major pipeline schemes in Co Kerry have been suspended because of health and safety and other concerns, the county council said yesterday.
Contracts for the €4.1 million scheme to upgrade the wastewater pipelines in Kilcummin, Barraduff and Milltown were signed in February and works began in May.
Some 6km of foul sewer pipe is being laid in the Milltown scheme and 9.5km in the Barraduff/Kilcummin scheme which will link with the Killarney treatment plant. The pipe laying is part of a multi million euro upgrade of waste water in Kerry, which will eventually see upgrading of treatment plans. It is also part of an attempt to tackle an ongoing problem with pollution in the lakes of Killarney from outlying villages.
However, work on the Killarney environs scheme was suspended on July 20th. Last Friday, the Milltown scheme was put on hold following a visit there by an inspector from the Health and Safety Authority.
A spokesman for Kerry County Council said they also had concerns about "due diligence" or the progress of the work.
The contractor is the same in both schemes and had not been suspended, the council spokesman confirmed. The council was now in discussion with the contractor "in an effort to resolve the situation".
A spokesman for the Health and Safety Authority said "a number of health and safety issues were identified" when the inspector visited last week. However it was the council's decision to suspend works.
The contractor, McSweeny Building and Civil Engineering Ltd, Main Street, Kanturk, Co Cork was not available for comment, its office said.
Cllr Brendan Cronin (Independent) criticised the council's handling of the issue, describing the delay involved in the long-awaited works as "a crisis situation" for the villages.
"What are these communities going to do now seeing as they waited so long for these schemes? This is a huge setback," Cllr Cronin claimed. He also hit out at the council's failure to inform elected members, saying "it looks as if the council was trying to keep things under wraps".