Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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303. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the details of requests from Irish Water for additional public funding to address the need for capital investment in wastewater treatment plants; and his response to such requests between 1 December 2020 and 30 November 2021, in tabular form. [62813/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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My Department funds Irish Water through the annual estimates and budgetary process and are published in the Revised Estimates each year. In turn, funding for Irish Water is set within the framework of the Programme for Government, the National Development Plan 2021-2030 under Project Ireland 2040, the Water Services Policy Statement 2018-2025 and funding determinations by its independent economic regulator the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU).

The Programme for Government commits to funding Irish Water's capital investment plan for drinking water and waste water infrastructure on a multi-annual basis and delivery of the funding package committed to in Project Ireland 2040.

The Water Services Policy Statement 2018-2025 outlines the Government’s expectations for the delivery and development of water and waste water services in the years ahead against the strategic objective themes of Quality, Conservation and Future Proofing. In its Strategic Funding Plan, Irish Water has identified its business planning priorities for capital investment in line with the Water Services Policy Statement. The Plan sets out expected expenditure, income and funding requirements over a multi-annual period, while also meeting environmental requirements such as obligations under the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, the Drinking Water Directive and the EU Water Framework Directive mandated River Basin Management Plans.

The National Development Plan 2021-2030 commits to almost €6bn capital investment to be undertaken by Irish Water in the period from 2021-2025 of which over €4.5 billion will be Voted Exchequer funded in respect of domestic water services. This investment includes the projects and programmes committed to in Irish Water’s Capital Investment Plan 2020-2024 approved by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities under Revenue Control 3.5.

Finally, as part of Budget 2022, I secured funding of €1.459 billion in respect of domestic water services provision by Irish Water, which includes €830 million in capital funding.