A dozen breakdowns in the public water supply in Navan, Co Meath, last week have prompted the Fianna Fáil mayor of the town to describe the system as "unacceptable in a Third World country, never mind a busy town".
After a meeting with technical staff of Meath County Council for a briefing on the situation, the mayor, Mr Tommy Reilly, said the recent problems had all been associated with a single pipe along the Windtown road.
It needed to be replaced, and the situation was so bad that the public swimming pool was left without water last Thursday.
"It will cost around €150,000 to repair this specific problem, and in the last year alone I estimate the council will have spent close to €1.5 million on repairs," Cllr Reilly added.
The Department of the Environment has allocated funding to replace the water-supply system in the town and, while work on this has begun, it appears local people and businesses may have to tolerate recurring breaks in supply.
A €6 million upgrade of the waterworks at Kilcarn has also been completed in the last year. It was to support the main works at Liscarten, but Cllr Reilly believes that problems associated with Kilcarn have contributed to the large number of bursts or breaks in supply, which have amounted to more than 100 in the last two years.
Meanwhile Navan Chamber of Commerce says the problems are being dealt with "on a firefighting basis". Its president, Mr Michael Cassidy, said: "The retailers want the situation remedied once and for all. A plan has to be drawn up to replace the pipes on a street-by-street basis so that traffic can be managed while the work is under way."