Pipe dreams - Irish Water debated in Dáil

The failure to upgrade local water treatment plants and the impact of this on housing development across the region was raised during a debate on Irish Water in Dáil Éireann recently.

Over the course of more than three hours, with 38 contributions, the debate veered from calling for the abolition of the utilities entity and how water charges were blocked a part of an countrywide anti-austerity campaign a decade ago, to supply being “cornerstone” of public health, economic growth, environmental protection and housing development.

Sinn Féin’s Matt Cathy was among those concerned about the latter.

He said the consequences of Government failures on housing are “well rehearsed”, with record rents, record homelessness and house prices going up every month.

But he said some people are “surprised” to hear of local developers in towns and villages in Cavan and Monaghan and elsewhere who have sites “ready to go, plans in place, workers in place and customers on standby”.

They find themselves, however, in a “deadlock”, described Deputy Carthy. “Not because of the local authority, not because of any opposition, but because the local wastewater treatment plant is awaiting an upgrade and no development can happen until the upgrade is complete. One would imagine that a government that claims that housing is the social issue of this generation would be moving heaven and earth to sort this out. Not so, I am afraid,” he lambasted.

The Carrickmacross man gave examples. In the town of Kingscourt he said there is “huge demand for housing”, both public and private.

“I am dealing with one developer with a plan to provide some of these houses but the wastewater plant needs an upgrade. When will it happen? Who knows?! The local authority cannot tell the developer and Uisce Éireann, it seems, just will not tell. What Uisce Éireann does tell us, however, is that it needs a further €2 billion in capital funding in order to address the capacity issues in towns like Kingscourt.”

Deputy Cathy continued by saying that, unless the Government provides the funding needed, “all its rhetoric on housing counts for nothing, all the protestations from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael reps about individual plants in counties like Cavan and Monaghan count for nothing, and families in need of housing and local developers eager to provide it will continue to be left waiting. It is time for the Government to get its act together.”

The Dáil was meanwhile told that, in recent weeks, Uisce Éireann has ramped up capital delivery for water services and infrastructure from €300 million in 2014 to roughly €1.3 billion in 2024.

The strategic funding plan for the next four years sets out a multi-annual strategic funding requirement of €16.9 billion to 2029, comprised a €10.3 billion investment in infrastructure and assets and €6.6 billion in operating costs.

In 2018, the rate of leakage nationally was 46%. By the end of 2022, it was 37% and is on track to achieve a national leakage rate of 25%, and save a further 200 million litres of water daily, by the end of 2030.

However the Irish Social Democrats’ Jennifer Whitmore from Wicklow questioned where the investment is going, and highlighted the need to protect sources from an environmental perspective.

“We often forget about the environmental impacts of Uisce Éireann not meeting its statutory requirements or indeed its EU requirements when it comes to water management and treatment,” she said, highlighting how sewage was found to have been discharged into a wild brown trout spawning river in Cavan.

Effluent from Uisce Éireann’s network entered the Pound River, a tributary of the Mountnugent River, which flows into Lough Sheelin.

In February, before Cavan District Court, Uisce Éireann was fined €3,000 as well as costs and expenses of €6,158.

It arose, said Deputy Whitmore, from Uisce Éireann failing to “spot a pump failure”. She added: “That should have been easily avoidable. It is just a matter of an alarm system. It does not require major, complex infrastructure; rather, it requires an alarm.

“Many of the problems we see concerning Uisce Éireann are because of very basic things. That absolutely should be a focus of the work it is doing.”

Deputy Whitmore, who has a background in ecology, marine science and environmental law, said an Environmental Protection Agency (DPA) report states Uisce Éireann reported 1,141 short-duration or once-off environmental incidents during 2023.

“Almost half of these were caused by equipment breakdowns and issues with the operation and maintenance of treatment plants. This is stuff it should have down pat. It should be doing it. It gets enough money to do so. It does not entail large-scale infrastructure. Even if Uisce Éireann were to get that part of its remit right, it would certainly take us a long way.”