Of course I have read it.

Sentiment score: 0.00

It is some stretch.

Sentiment score: 0.00

As it is my first time speaking after the Christmas break, I wish all Deputies a happy new year and a productive year. I thank everyone who has contributed today to what is a very important debate on water services. Our water infrastructure is part of our shared fabric as a society and it is rightly the subject of extensive democratic scrutiny both from the Oireachtas and our regulatory bodies. Since the establishment of Uisce Éireann, significant improvements have been made in the delivery of water services. Hundreds of water and wastewater treatment plants have been upgraded along with the installation of thousands of kilometres of new or rehabilitated water mains. National leakage rates have been reduced and the overall quality of drinking water remains very high. There is, of course, more work to do and the sustained and increasing funding and support provided by the Government will enable Uisce Éireann to make continued progress in the time ahead. To that end, the Government policy paper on water sector transformation sets the vision for water services based on the full integration of water services provided by 31 local authorities into one national authority. Moving the operation and control of public water services from local authorities to direct Uisce Éireann responsibility represents one of the largest public sector reform programmes in recent years. It involves numerous facilities around the country and over 3,000 local authority workers, both full- and part-time workers. I wish to take this opportunity, as Minister of State, to acknowledge each and every one of those workers for the significant work they do every single day of the week. Significant progress has been made in transforming the water sector and this transformation is due to be completed at the end of this year. The Government recognises that our water and wastewater networks require ongoing and sustained investment to bring these up to the required standard of treatment to deal with population growth and adapt to the impacts of climate change. We are dealing with a legacy of underinvestment in water services and infrastructure in Ireland. I think everyone in this Chamber - if they really want to knowledge it - will acknowledge that there were huge discrepancies in the performance of local authorities in the area of water and wastewater when it came to investment. Therefore, significant remedial work is necessary that will take a number of years and investment cycles to fully resolve. The updated national development plan provides unprecedented investment of €12.2 billion to the water sector, €11.7 billion of which is earmarked to support Uisce Éireann to meet the ambitious targets in terms of compliance and ensuring the significant uplift in housing delivery our country requires. Under the national development plan, Uisce Éireann has allocated €1.7 billion for a new additional growth programme that will support accelerated housing delivery. Uisce Éireann has identified 71 settlements across Ireland for additional investment where the existing capacity of treatment plants can support significant development in the short term. The selection of these 71 settlements took account of the national planning framework, the regional, spatial and economic strategies, county development plans and local area plans. In addition, Uisce Éireann consulted with the development community, the LDA, the LGMA housing unit and other housing bodies. The progression of these and other projects has to be delivered in a quicker and more efficient timeframe, as many Deputies have rightly pointed out here today. In acknowledgement that Uisce Éireann cannot meet all the housing capacity requirements on its own, the Government has recently approved a new developer-led infrastructure initiative. This represents a significant and pragmatic step forward by ensuring that wastewater infrastructure does not become a barrier to delivering much-needed housing, particularly in small towns and villages in rural areas. This initiative introduces a clear partnership model that will allow developers to deliver wastewater infrastructure to Uisce Éireann standards. Uisce Éireann will then secure regulatory compliance by taking the assets into public ownership for long-term operation and maintenance. This initiative provides certainty for developers, protects environmental standards and avoids the legacy risks associated with earlier approaches to developer-led infrastructure. The developer-led infrastructure initiative will help unlock housing in areas previously constrained by wastewater capacity and support balanced regional development. Finding and fixing leaks is difficult and resource-intensive work. Investment of over €2 billion by Uisce Éireann over the past ten years has meant significant progress, with national leakage rates coming down from 48% in 2014 to 36% in 2024. Of course there is more work to be done in this area and Uisce Éireann has a plan to do it by focusing on the areas experiencing water shortages, and higher demand areas as a targeted focus. The organisation is embarking on some of the largest infrastructure projects ever undertaken in Ireland to meet future growth and societal needs. Some Deputies have referenced some of those in their contributions. The water supply project eastern and midlands region is a generational project and will be one of the largest ever undertaken. It will deliver a safe, secure and sustainable source of water supply to the eastern and midlands region. It will achieve this by bringing treated water from the Parteen Basin in County Tipperary to Peamount in Dublin. The pipeline will have capacity for off-takes along the route in Tipperary, Offaly and Westmeath. It will also enable supplies serving Dublin to be redirected back locally in Carlow, Wicklow, Meath and Louth, bringing benefits to the Dublin region and the wider eastern and midlands regions. The delivery of this generational project is critical to sustainable economic growth, enabling housing delivery and attracting investment to support Ireland's growing population for the next 30 years and beyond. In tandem with the water supply project, the greater Dublin drainage project, GDD, is critical to facilitate growth in the greater Dublin area. The new wastewater treatment plant will be situated in the southern fringes of Fingal, immediately outside the M50 motorway in Dublin, and will serve north Dublin and parts of the surrounding counties of Kildare and Meath. The GDD will provide the additional treatment and network capacity to support the long-term sustainable growth of the greater Dublin region and ensure that Ireland continues to meet our objectives under European law. Beyond the statutory regulators, Uisce Éireann is also subject to rigorous financial scrutiny by way of a dual audit from the Controller and Auditor General and by commercial auditors, as well as being accountable to the Committee of Public Accounts. In terms of communication and public engagement, Uisce Éireann maintains contact with a diverse range of large groups of customers and community stakeholders through a range of channels on a daily basis. I accept that many of the comments of Members here today have focused on inadequate communications. Notwithstanding that Uisce Éireann has responded to more than 100,000 queries directly over the last ten years to 1,100 elected representatives, it is clear that the focus from Deputies here has been in relation to the timely response to those queries. That is something I will take up with Uisce Éireann management. While the Government does have full confidence in Uisce Éireann to deliver improved and strengthened water infrastructure through the NDP and beyond, it is not without criticism, especially when it comes to timelines afforded to the development sector and when it comes to pre-connection and connection agreements. This is an area that I have repeatedly called out myself and it needs a significant additional focus and a determined effort by Uisce Éireann. I make that point again here on the floor of the Dáil. As a Minister of State representing the Government I am confident that with the strong backing we are providing the organisation it can deliver a stronger and more resilient water and wastewater service that meets the needs of our current and future customers in the years ahead.

Sentiment score: 0.36