Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I wish to raise water infrastructure and, in particular, issues that have been experienced by residents in Dargle Wood, Knocklyon. There has been a marked increase in water outages over the last few months. The residents have had eight separate outages since the beginning of this year alone, but such outages have been a persistent issue for years now. There have been 23 water outages in this estate since 2022, some lasting days at a time. I have been contacted by some residents who have lived in that area for decades and they have never experienced anything like this before. If it were an isolated incident, you might say, "Fair enough. It is not great, but these things can happen." However, it has been persistently a recurring problem for years now and it appears to be just getting worse. As the Minister of State can imagine, it is incredibly disruptive. Homes in the estate went three days without water over the Easter weekend. They could not wash dishes, wash clothes, take showers, flush their toilets, drink tap water, etc. These are the basics. Residents have also been expressing their frustration to me about the speed, or the lack thereof, on the part of Uisce Éireann when it comes to sorting out the burst pipes that are causing the outages when they occur.

I understand that residents who report these issues to Uisce Éireann get told that they will be sorted by a particular time on a particular day but then there is no sign of the crews. During that burst pipe on the Easter weekend, residents were told by Uisce Éireann that its crews had been out working on it over the weekend. That was not true. Work actually did not begin until the following Tuesday. There is a real sense among the residents of Dargle Wood that they are just being fobbed off, and this cannot go on.

I have been in contact already with Uisce Éireann on the issue a number of times, and until recently the approach seemed to be just patching up the pipe anytime a burst happens. It cannot be just a case of putting a plaster on this problem consistently. There are serious issues here with the whole pipe network servicing the area. Uisce Éireann does seem to have acknowledged that and that there has been significant development around the Dargle Wood estate in recent years. Some 480 apartments went in adjacent to the estate just a couple of years ago. That is great - we always want to see more homes built - but the water infrastructure obviously has not kept pace and is struggling and failing with the amount of pressure being put on it now. I am not sure if any sort of analysis was done prior to the new apartments going in on the quality of the pipes servicing the areas surrounding them to determine if they would be able to cope with the additional network connections. Regardless of that, it is evident that they are not coping. The most recent correspondence I have received from Uisce Éireann acknowledges that the pipe network feeding the area is ageing and not in the best condition. That network, the pipes in Dargle Wood and other nearby areas, should have been upgraded at the time those new apartments were going in. The pipes are clearly at the end of their working life and are being pushed beyond their useful limits.

I understand that Uisce Éireann is planning on reconfiguring the network and installing pressure management in the area later in the year. I will be asking the Minister of State that this be brought forward and prioritised in order that the issues can be addressed sooner. Ideally, we would also see an upgrade of the pipe network. Residents have not been able to get straight answers out of Uisce Éireann on what has been causing the problem, but it seems that Uisce Éireann has now admitted that, basically, it is the state the pipes are in. Will the Minister commit to that being looked into and perhaps provide a timeline in the near future for a network upgrade, which is clearly necessary?

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. As he will understand, the supply of public water and the provision of water services are matters for Uisce Éireann. Uisce Éireann has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local level.

The scope, prioritisation and progression of individual projects are matters for Uisce Éireann and approved through its own board and internal governance structures. Under section 7 of the Water Services (No. 2) Act, the Minister has no function regarding Uisce Éireann's specific operations at Dargle Wood. However, the Minister has made inquiries and my understanding from the information provided is that an unplanned outage occurred on Sunday, 20 April. A number of customers were impacted following that burst water main, which resulted in low pressure and water interruptions in the area.

Local Uisce Éireann service crews should be immediately dispatched when an unplanned outage occurs to do repair work as soon as possible. This did not happen, and Uisce Éireann acknowledges that it did not meet the service expectations as regards that localised burst. A leak detection crew was mobilised to find the burst on the Tuesday morning, 22 April, with the repair completed by the Tuesday evening.

Following the repair, Uisce Éireann was made aware that some customers experienced airlocks in their households and deployed a plumber to further help those householders and water was returned to all properties.

Uisce Éireann would like to thank elected representatives for highlighting the issue to its teams and is grateful for the support of South Dublin County Council crews in attending the site and carrying out the repairs. Uisce Éireann is reviewing the burst history in the Knocklyon area and will develop appropriate works programmes.

Uisce Éireann understands how disruptive unplanned outages are and it has informed the Minister that it regrets the inconvenience caused to customers and residents. A full review is ongoing relating to the delay in dispatching crews to the site to ensure that this does not happen again.

Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I appreciate the acknowledgment from Uisce Éireann that the service over the Easter weekend was not up to scratch and not acceptable. It is really just not fair to be asking people to put up with these inevitable outages again and again between now and whenever the planned works take place. I appreciate that carrying out an upgrade on the pipes themselves is a more significant body of work, but the residents are concerned that if the existing pipes are left in place, regardless of any pressure management systems or reconfiguration that might occur in the near future, and given the age and condition of the pipes, it just will not solve the problem and they will be condemned to regular water outages.

Again, is there any possibility of getting a timeline for the reports that Uisce Éireann is doing on these pipes and when it will be in a position first of all to do the short-term remedial work and then to replace the broader pipe network in the area?

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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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.