James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I raise this in the context of a very live issue. Dublin City Council recently went out to public consultation on a brownfield site known as Ballyboggan where more than 6,000 homes could be built. As part of that consultation, Uisce Éireann identified two very significant challenges to the delivery of those homes. The first was wastewater treatment and the absence of a wastewater treatment plant in the area to service those homes. The second, and it is either fortunate or unfortunate that the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley is in the seat here today, relates to the Dublin to Shannon water pipeline and the possibility there may be an insufficient water supply to support the construction of those homes on this site.

The context for this master plan being put out to public consultation is as a result of the Government’s decision to update the national planning framework to go out to every local authority in the country and ask them to identify what parcels of lands they have to deliver more homes and houses. However, elected members of Dublin City Council will be faced with a very challenging decision when it comes to the rezoning of those lands if Uisce Éireann, formerly Irish Water, is telling the council and the councillors that there is not a sufficient wastewater treatment plant in the area and there may be risks to the water supply. As someone who previously served on the council, I would find it very difficult to make a decision to rezone that land. That is why it is so essential that we establish this strategic housing activation office. The example of Ballyboggan is a classic case where if we banged heads together, we could find interim solutions and ensure that councillors could be confident that if they rezoned the land, they would be doing so in a way that was safe and sufficient, that would have an adequate water supply and wastewater treatment plant and that interim solutions could also be provided.

Ballyboggan is also illustrative of the multifaceted challenges we have in the delivery of housing in this country. Uisce Éireann’s mentions the absence of a wastewater treatment plant. That plant was first before An Bord Pleanála in 2019 but arising from local objections, it ended up in judicial review in the High Court. It is only back before An Bord Pleanála. We must see and believe that the new Planning Act, significant parts of which have been commenced, will make a substantial difference to the planning process so that the public can have faith that when these applications are put forward that only in very exceptional circumstances will they end up in the higher courts and experience delays that we simply cannot afford.

I have no doubt the kind of example I have given in Ballyboggan could be replicated throughout the country on smaller parcels of land.

It is so essential, in the moneys we give to Uisce Éireann, that we see demonstrable connection between those moneys and how many water connections for houses it will deliver over the long term and the kind of interim solutions that can be provided. In many cases, we simply cannot wait for those long-term solutions to arrive. We need to act now.

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. Water supply in the greater Dublin area is dependent on large abstractions, as he knows, from the River Liffey and the River Vartry. To address this, Uisce Éireann is progressing long-term projects to secure our water supply for the future, including two major projects for Dublin and the eastern and midlands region. The water supply project eastern and midlands region was approved in principle by the Government in June 2024. It is a generational project that will address the water supply deficit and lack of capacity for growth in the eastern and midlands region by supplying water from a hydropower reservoir on the River Shannon, which I am reasonably familiar with. The greater Dublin drainage, GDD, project will develop a new regional wastewater treatment facility and associated infrastructure to serve north Dublin and parts of counties Kildare and Meath. The GDD planning application is currently under review by An Bord Pleanála with a decision expected in the coming months. These two major projects are scheduled for completion in the early 2030s and will secure the water services for Dublin and the surrounding regions into the future.

Uisce Éireann also has interim plans to address water supply risks in the greater Dublin area, GDA, and to improve its water supply by reducing leakage, increasing raw water storage and carrying out upgrades to the current infrastructure to ensure they can obtain maximum output. These interventions will allow Uisce Éireann to control the water supply until delivery of the water supply project in 2032. The GDA is amber on the register maintained by Uisce Éireann to indicate the capacity status of its various treatment plants rather than an unconstrained "green" status. However, Uisce Éireann will prioritise new connections for water supply for domestic properties to support housing needs across the area and assess non-domestic connection applications on a case-by-case basis.

Uisce Éireann will work with developers of large non-domestic developments to reduce water requirements through the use of more water-efficient technology. More generally, the Government is delivering a sustainable funding path to further enhance the ongoing significant improvement in our public water and wastewater services. In 2018, the rate of leakage nationally was approximately 46%, but by the end of 2022 it had reduced to 37%. Uisce Éireann is on track to achieve a national leakage rate of 25%, with the expectation of a GDA rate of 20%, by the end of 2030.

It is also important to remember that in the past ten years, Uisce Éireann has ramped up capital delivery capability for water services and infrastructure from €300 million in 2014 to approximately €1.3 billion in 2024. Record funding has been allocated between 2020 and 2024. This will continue under the National Development Plan 2026-2030.

Of course, it is clear that one of the major issues in addressing the deficit in housing is linked to a lack of water and sewerage infrastructure and, at another level, grid capacity. The Government is very cognisant of that and is committed to the continued roll-out of the funding required to put that infrastructure in place. The Deputy very eloquently highlighted the needs in the greater Dublin area, but that is also the case in other regional towns and cities. It is something the Government is focusing on as part of the need to address the shortage of housing in the marketplace.

James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his reply. Some people might find it shocking to know that 85% of all the water supply in the GDA comes from one source. It is definitely the case that we have been talking about the Shannon to Dublin pipeline for well over a decade at this point. This specific example I spoke to illustrates the urgent need for that critical infrastructure project, which, let us not deny, will cost several billions of euro. That is why the Government has taken a decision to ensure that the priority, when it comes to capital investment, will be infrastructure. It may be that wastewater treatment plants and water pipelines are not the pretty things, as it were, with shiny red bows on them, but they are absolutely essential to delivering our most pressing need, which is housing.

It would be remiss of me, in the context of wastewater treatment plants, not to mention, in my own backyard, the Ringsend wastewater treatment plant, which has received record levels of investment after long years of pursuing it, and fines and everything else, with more to come. There is an aspect of that I would like Uisce Éireann to respond to me on, which is the modernisation of how it manages wastewater tanks during storms. The impact of that, especially on Sandymount Strand, is it makes areas no-go for swimming. The water quality is such that it is one of the few beaches in the Dublin area where people cannot swim. There must be a more modern way in which we can manage storm outflows than simply throwing that untreated treatment straight into the water that is going directly into the UNESCO biosphere. I thank the Minister of State for the response.

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy's interest in this matter is very clear. His desire to address issues in his area on behalf of his constituents is commendable and is noted.

As I said, our water and wastewater infrastructure requires substantial and sustained investment over a number of investment cycles to bring the systems up to the standard required of a modern service, to provide for population growth and to build resilience in the face of climate change, as the Deputy identified in respect of Sandymount Strand. To address these challenges, the Government has outlined key strategic investment priorities for public water and wastewater capacity through the national development plan. These include the water supply project I described, which will provide essential capacity to support the water supply needs of up to 50% of our population. Similarly, the greater Dublin drainage project will protect public health, safeguard our environment and facilitate growth in the greater Dublin area to 2050.

Currently, 40% of the nation's wastewater is treated, as the Deputy said, at Ringsend. This over-reliance on one location is not sustainable and is a barrier to the delivery of housing and economic development, not only in Dublin but in counties Kildare and Meath. More locally, the north city arterial main project will see the significant replacement and installation of a strategic trunk main in the northern area of Dublin city and neighbouring Fingal. The new infrastructure will reduce the risk of interruption to an estimated 29,000 properties.

It is also very clear from the programme for Government, which the Deputy will be familiar with, and the Taoiseach and Tánaiste have made it clear, that now is the time for action. The Government plan over the next five years is to move from a phase of strategy and planning to implementation and action. There is a very significant focus on that at Government level. It is now time for all Departments and agencies to move because we have reached a point where the lack of infrastructure in particular areas is having a drag on economic growth and putting sustained pressure on housing output, which is a very important issue on the minds of most in the House and certainly outside it.