Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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463. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his views on the Irish Water admission that in the four year period 2017-2020 a total of approximately 8.875 million cubic metres of untreated sewage and storm waters was discharged into Dublin Bay from overflow tanks located at the Ringsend wastewater treatment plant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21561/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Since 1 January 2014, Irish Water has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local levels. Irish Water’s primary function is to provide clean safe drinking water to customers and to treat and return waste water safely to the environment. In turn, the EPA, as environmental regulator, is responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance with the necessary quality standards for the collection and treatment of waste water discharges.

The direct discharge of untreated sewage directly to the environment is clearly not a tenable situation, and one which I earnestly wish to see addressed as soon as possible. When Irish Water was established in 2014, they inherited a system in need of very significant improvement.  To date, the company has halted the discharge of raw sewage from the equivalent of 100,000 people in 15 towns across Ireland, removing half of all the raw sewage discharged.  Irish Water continues to develop and implement a long-term investment perspective in order to strategically address the deficiencies in the public water and waste water system.

Storm-water overflows are a usual feature of a combined storm water and waste water drainage system, and are designed to ensure that sewers do not flood streets, businesses and homes - which would be a serious and immediate threat to public health.  The water that is released from storm-water overflows happens after heavy or prolonged spells of rain, and has been heavily diluted with rainwater.  However, these overflows must be designed, maintained or upgraded so as to minimise the frequency of these discharges.

The Ringsend wastewater treatment plant was originally designed and built to treat wastewater for a population equivalent of 1.64 million and is now overloaded. In response, Irish Water is currently undertaking a major upgrade of the plant. This upgrade will increase the capacity of the plant to cater for the growing population of the Greater Dublin Area and will address compliance with EU law.  Planning permission was granted for the project in April 2019, and the project is currently underway. 

Building water and waste water treatment plants, as well as upgrading or building new water and waste water networks, requires significant and sustained investment.  The National Development Plan 2018-2027 provides for significant investment in public water and wastewater infrastructure over the course of the plan to ensure the continued operation, repair and upgrading of Ireland’s water and waste water infrastructure to support social and economic development across the State and ensure compliance with EU Directives.