Large leak; no meter; no access outside to stop valve; no help from Irish Water yet

YogiBoy

I have a loud gushing noise in the house, even with the stopcock switched to off (so no water in the house at all). To their credit, Irish Water got the Council out immediately. They confirmed there was a leak, either on the public side or leading into the house, or heavens forbid, under the house. The gushing noise (loud) is coming from the leak outside and can be heard in the house, but it is before where the mains enters the house. The Council confirmed that.
The BIG problem is that there is no meter, there is not even a gate valve or anything to shut of the mains water to the house outside.  All the other houses in the estate have meters and valves; ours is the only that doesn’t.  
The Council, when they came out, identified where the supply outside the house leaves the mains and enters the driveway and where the meter should go.  They said that Irish Water should have a contractor sent out to install a meter and that will help us locate where the leak is.
That  was almost five weeks ago.
Since then, despite frequent calls to Irish Water, there has been no action.
The insurance won’t cover anything at all if a lake is discovered under the house and it falls down, as no insurance  covers known faults.  
I can’t get a private leak detector to work on the case (I’d gladly pay several hundred euro to get this risk off my back) as they are not allowed to dig up the road outside (all the more so as rather busy).
==> So I am well and truly stuck, at the mercy of Irish Water, and the pressure they put on their contractor (to install the meter) or the Council (to get access to the valve).
 
So my question is:  what means are open to me to substantially up the pressure on Irish Water to take action? I thought of getting this case some airplay in the media.  Any other ideas?
 
As a sign as to how out of touch Irish Water are, they even sent me a letter asking me to check if the boundary box (the cover for the outside valve) had been replaced, saying this should fix the gushing noise. It wasn’t. So they are not even able to communicate with their contractors of the Council when work has been done. I wonder whether their contractor bills them for imaginary work. 
All incredible.

Irish Water: Amy A

Hi YogiBoy,

Thanks for getting in touch.

We're sorry to read this, and can most certainly follow up on this for you straight away. To do this, we would ask that you send the following details via PM:

- Your name;
- Address; and
- Contact number.

Thanks in advance,
Amy