John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this issue on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and I thank the Deputy for the opportunity to provide an update on improvements by Irish Water to the water supply in Ratoath, County Meath.

Since 1 January 2014, Irish Water has had statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local level. Irish Water, as a single national utility, is taking a strategic, nationwide approach to asset planning and investment and meeting customer requirements. Irish Water’s water services strategic plan, WSSP, sets out the strategic objectives for its delivery of water services over 25 years up to 2040 in order to ensure the provision of clean safe drinking water, effective management of wastewater, environmental protection and support for social and economic development. It takes a long-term view of water services investment at a national level, to ensure that investment is strategically targeted towards priority needs and to put in place an asset management approach towards investment in water services that gives the optimum balance between capital and operational spend to ensure the required service delivery to the people of Ireland over time, and at least cost.

The Irish Water business plan, Transforming Water Services in Ireland to 2021, also published in 2015 by Irish Water, sets out its short- to medium-term planning for implementing the first phase of the water services strategic plan. While the Irish Water business plan sets out the planned level of operational and capital expenditure over this period, the actual allowed operational expenditure and capital investment is decided on by the economic regulator, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU. To this end, Irish Water submits to the CRU a water charges plan for specific regulatory periods, based on the WSSP and its business plan. Irish Water has also developed an investment plan based on a five-year investment planning horizon, 2017 to 2021, which aligns to the WSSP and the seven-year business plan. In that context, Irish Water must optimise investment decisions to ensure that it utilises scarce capital by making investments that deliver the best possible service improvements while maximising value-for-money.

A substantial proportion of investment by the State through Irish Water over the next ten years will be focused on programmes to improve compliance with relevant public health and environmental standards. This will include implementation of the measures contained within the river basin management plan for Ireland 2018-21 and the achievement of the outcomes identified. A priority objective is to bring public water and wastewater services to acceptable international benchmarks, verified by independent monitoring and reporting.

A vital measure for improving water quality is increased wastewater treatment, where the focus will be on ensuring full compliance with the urban wastewater directive and wastewater licensing requirements.

Irish Water acknowledges the ongoing issues with water supply experienced by the communities in Ratoath and the inconvenience this has caused. It is actively pursuing an action plan to address these issues. This plan involves a series of works being carried out to the network in phases, some of which Deputy Byrne referred to in his opening comments, along with an upgrade to the Staleen water treatment plant, which is the water supply for Ratoath and a large part of east county Meath.

The completion of these upgrade works will deliver environmental benefits to the River Boyne and surrounding areas and will also deliver an improvement of the energy efficiency of the plant. Most importantly, it will eradicate the underlying weaknesses of the plant and thereby remove the scheme from the EPA's remedial action list and ensure a safe supply of drinking water to the people of Ratoath.

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