Naoise Ó Cearúil (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

I wish to raise a matter of urgent importance affecting communities across Kildare North, that is, the sustained and worsening failure in water infrastructure, particularly in Celbridge, Leixlip and Maynooth. For far too long, families in estates such as Primrose Hill, Temple Manor and The Grove in Celbridge have been forced to endure weekend after weekend of drastically reduced water pressure. Constituents have told me they cannot wash their clothes, boil a kettle, flush their toilets or even shower on Saturdays and Sundays. One resident described it plainly: "We don't have enough water to live with dignity." Let us be clear; this is not an isolated incident or a one-off technical glitch. It is the direct result of an ageing and inadequate water network that is simply no longer fit for purpose in one of the fastest-growing parts of the country. We are asking people to conserve water when, in reality, many of them do not even have enough water to meet their basic household needs.

Uisce Éireann announced in April that it would begin vital works between Newcastle and Celbridge under its national leakage reduction programme. It committed to starting site investigations within two weeks, but those works did not commence. Our office had to chase it repeatedly without reply. It was only in mid-May that we learned it had not even secured a road-opening licence to carry out the works. That kind of delay is simply unacceptable, and that service to the public is shocking. In Celbridge, some households were left without water for up to ten days in 2024. In Leixlip, planned mains rehabilitation was announced but never commenced. In March 2025, Uisce Éireann itself admitted that Kildare’s water supply was on a knife edge.

More houses are being built in Kildare. Communities are growing, families are moving in, but the essential infrastructure is not keeping pace. The people of Kildare North deserve the same level of basic service as anyone else in this country. Last night, I spoke in this Chamber about the need for sustainable communities as we build more houses, apartments and duplexes, and there is a drastic need to build as much housing as possible. However, we need to ensure that we have sustainable communities when it comes to public services such as water. It is the bare minimum. I request that the Minister of State urgently speak with Uisce Éireann directly to ensure there is transparency, clear timelines and accelerated delivery of infrastructure in Kildare North. We need proper investment in water infrastructure now; not in two years, not when the pipes burst, but today.

I also wish to raise the issue of when a public representative or member of the public at large contacts Irish Water for an answer. We had to follow up about six or seven times without reply, and the reply we did receive at one stage was the token holding message that it would come back to us in due course. That is not good enough when people's water has gone. At the end of the day, no child should have to go to school on a Monday morning unwashed because the taps were dry at the weekend.

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