Mr. Niall Gleeson:

I thank the committee for the invitation to speak. Uisce Éireann is Ireland's national publicly owned utility. We manage approximately 8,000 water and wastewater assets around the country, and approximately 90,000 km of pipework. We spend approximately €2.5 billion annually, so €1.4 billion this year will be on capital and approximately €1 billion on operational expenditure.

Under the strategic funding plan, we have requested €16.9 billion between now and 2029. This will comprise €10.2 billion in capital and the balance in operational funds. The key challenges for us include meeting demand from population and housing growth, with the infrastructure originally built for much smaller populations. We have made another request of the Government, based on the new housing targets, of another addition to take it from 33,000 in the Housing for All targets up to approximately 50,000 units per year. Supplying the capacity for this will require another €2 billion, which we are requesting through the NDP programme.

We work closely with developers, Government and other stakeholders to improve delivery processes and overcome barriers in planning, funding and consenting. We are engaging in cross-agency initiatives such as the accelerating infrastructure task force and the housing activation office. We have representatives on both of those bodies. Strategic projects like the greater Dublin drainage project and water supply for the eastern and midlands region face high risks without urgent planning and funding reforms. We need a collective mindset to focus on the common good of a lot of these projects. That is what we are focused on as far as getting some changes into the planning system and the consenting system. We want to see more alignment of the various agencies that are required to deliver infrastructure.