Water restrictions to stay in place

Water restrictions are to remain in place in Dublin this weekend but storage levels in the capital's reservoirs are improving.

Dublin City Council said today it is to review the state of water supplies on Monday and may begin to lift restrictions on a phased basis from then.

However, the council said that a full picture of the supply situation will not be apparent until the middle of next week once schools and colleges have returned from their Christmas break.

All of the city's 19 water systems will have restrictions over the weekend. These will range from minor reductions to the water being completely shut off.

Restrictions will be in place from 7pm this evening until 9am tomorrow morning. Restrictions will also be enforced from 7pm tomorrow evening to 10am on Sunday morning and from 7pm on Sunday evening to 7am on Monday morning.

A number of localised faults have also been reported which are affecting water supplies in areas such as Crumlin, Glasnevin and Kimmage.

The council said it was continuing to find and fix broken pipes which will help improve the supply situation . It said it did not expect significant additional damage to be caused to pipes over the weekend with adverse weather conditions set to return.

Night-time water restrictions were lifted entirely earlier this week in Cork city, Kerry, Limerick city and county, Galway city, Leitrim, Mayo, and Donegal.