Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)

Our water and wastewater infrastructure requires substantial and sustained investment over a number of investment cycles to bring the systems up to the standards required of a modern service that provides for population growth and to build resilience in the face of climate change. Uisce Éireann has ramped up capital delivery for water services and infrastructure and we as an Oireachtas and a Government provided €300 million in 2014. That went up to €1.3 billion in 2024. That has resulted in record investment over the last five years. The investments continued in this budget, with capital funding for Uisce Éireann of over €2.2 billion, and further funding for water infrastructure will be considered as part of the review of the national development plan.

Uisce Éireann has a strong - I do not like the word "customer" in relation to State bodies - resident service focus through its water plan and customer charter, which outlines the standard of service residents should expect to receive. It is open to any member of the public to lodge a formal complaint with Uisce Éireann if they are not happy with the service provided. Details on how to do so are on its website. Any issues which cannot be resolved by Uisce Éireann to the satisfaction of the resident can be referred under the formal complaints process of the CRU. The details of this are on the CRU website. Uisce Éireann has, as the Deputy knows, a dedicated team to deal with representations and queries from public representatives, and he will have the contact details for them. We all have these issues with Uisce Éireann in every constituency. Sometimes there is fantastic work done; sometimes there just is not. We have to praise the good when it happens and try to rectify the bad when that happens too. I thank Uisce Éireann for its work and thank the Deputy for highlighting this because it is important in a democracy to remember that Uisce Éireann is a public entity and is accountable to the Government and the Oireachtas through that.

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