2026-05-13

Ar an gcéad dul síos, gabhaim buíochas leis an Cheann Comhairle as cabhrú leis an Topical seo. I also thank the people who travelled here last week and who have been fighting this campaign in the interest of the community and common sense for more than a decade now. I thank Councillors Seamus Morris and Phyll Bugler, Emma Kennedy who has done massive work on this, anglers and others who came here last week, and the community activists and ordinary concerned citizens who are exposing the madness of this project. The proposed eastern and midlands water supply project seeks to abstract 300 million to 330 million litres per day from the River Shannon at Parteen Basin and transfer it to the Dublin eastern region. While securing a resilient water supply for Dublin is a legitimate national objective, the current proposal raises serious legal, environmental, financial and governance issues. None of us are anti-Dublin but we want common sense. The project may breach international environmental laws, especially the water framework directive and habitats directive. Environmental impacts have been misrepresented through reliance on average flow statistics. This will lead to severe impacts during drought conditions. Better alternatives, including addressing leakage in Dublin - which everyone talks about - and groundwater development, have not been properly evaluated. The project externalises environmental risk to the Shannon catchment, while primarily benefiting Dublin. That is totally discriminatory. The environmental assessment does not exclude adverse impacts on protected habitats and species under EU law. The EU forbids those. In its current form, the project exposes the State to significant legal risk, ecological damage and long-term policy inconsistency and that must be looked at as well. The 2% claim is misleading. The project documentation repeatedly states that the abstraction represents approximately 2% of the Shannon's average flow. This statistic is misleading and scientifically untrue. Ecological impacts are determined by flow conditions, not long-term averages. Evidence presented in submissions shows that during dry summer flows, extraction could remove 25% to 30% of available flow and during extreme drought conditions, which we experience pretty often in Ireland, it could remove up to 38% to 40% of available flow. This is not a marginal intervention by any measure. The wool is being pulled over people's eyes. It is not acceptable to say the abstraction is 2%. The environmental law it will breach is the water framework directive. The EU law provides that member states prevent deterioration of water bodies. The Shannon system is already classified with a below good status in several stretches. The application does not demonstrate with certainty that a deterioration will not occur. If deterioration cannot be excluded, the project must pass the strict Article 4(7) derogation test by showing overriding public interest, no better environmental alternatives and all mitigation measures implemented. It is failing in all those important areas. Regarding the habitats directive, we have been told about how it affects anybody who looks for planning permission at home for anything. We have to look at all those issues. Why would we allow Uisce Éireann do what it likes? It has a blank cheque. We are going to have the national children's hospital No. 2? It used to be a small amount of money but now we are talking about between €3 billion and €10 billion to put two big pipes up through the middle of the country when it is totally unnecessary. Fix the leaks in Dublin, use common sense and save the water. This is treated water and up to 40% of it is being leaked on a daily basis.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. There is a critical need for a new water source for Dublin, the east and the midlands. Currently, the River Liffey supplies 85% of the water requirements for 1.7 million people in Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow. By relying so heavily on one river, there is no alternative if there is a contamination or weather event and no backup if equipment failure affects supply. The project will provide Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow with a resilient, safe and secure water supply. It will also provide infrastructure with the capacity for future offtakes to serve communities along the route in Tipperary, Offaly and Westmeath. The current cost estimate is €4.6 billion to €6 billion and construction of the project is scheduled to commence in 2028, with Uisce Éireann aiming to complete the project by 2032, subject to planning and other statutory approvals. It is important to note that the project will abstract a maximum of 2% of the average flow of the River Shannon at the Parteen Basin downstream of Lough Derg. The water levels at Lough Derg and the Parteen Basin will remain in the control of the ESB and the abstraction will not affect the normal operating water levels. Uisce Éireann’s modelling shows that the abstraction is sustainable, will have a neutral effect on water quality and will make no visible day-to-day difference for any water users. Extensive preparation and studies have been undertaken and Uisce Éireann will continue to monitor the project during and after its construction. The potential environmental impacts of the project are being considered as part of the statutory planning process and will ultimately form part of the determination to be made by An Coimisiún Pleanála. This includes an extensive public consultation. As part of the planning application for the project submitted last December, a 30,000-page environmental impact assessment report, EIAR, was submitted by Uisce Éireann. The EIAR includes details of any likely significant environmental effects that may arise and the proposed mitigation measures that are being put in place. All of this is being considered as part of the planning application process for the project and I would also note that the EIAR and other planning documents have been published by Uisce Éireann. On the lands required for the project, Uisce Éireann has engaged extensively with the main farming organisations - the Irish Farmers' Association, IFA, and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, ICMSA - and an agreement has been reached on a standard agricultural wayleave package with both landowner representative organisations. I am pleased to note that around 81% of landowners have already signed up to this compensation package and Uisce Éireann is continuing its community engagement efforts. Uisce Éireann’s community engagement clinics are continuing throughout 2026 and a dedicated community liaison officer is working with the local communities along the route. The Government is committed to getting this vital infrastructure built as quickly as possible and will continue to support Uisce Éireann to deliver it.

The same thing is happening. I think it was Albert Einstein who said that doing same thing over and over again and expecting a different result was a form of insanity. Uisce Éireann is obviously out of control. We all know that from dealing with it on a regular basis. The Minister of State believes this. Its arrogance is typified by the statement that 81% of farmers have signed up to a project that does not have planning permission or an abstraction licence. Imagine that. Hundreds of millions of euro paid out, along with a 25% payment, to those landowners. I criticised the IFA and ICMSA for doing those kinds of seedy deal before the planning permission for the project had even been granted. This is what goes on in this country. What about the hundreds of landowners who have not signed up and do not want this going through their lands? Many others might not want it either but they are being forced to by so-called representative bodies. We are leaving the people behind. Have we learned nothing from the protests in recent weeks? I could go into a lot of stuff here. The habitats directive has been totally overridden. The Shannon system is already ecologically stressed. There are alternatives that have not been examined. It is insane to pump treated water from Parteen Basin into Dublin just to leak up to 40% of it into the ground. We ought to remember what leaks back in when the pressure goes down or there are bursts - the filth and dirt that seeps back in to the people of Dublin in the water they are getting. We are told that we are going to store the water in the pipe for a month during different drought periods. What kind of water are we going to have? This is insane but it is just a typical example of Uisce Éireann's arrogance. It will not deal with anybody properly. It just throws money at the problem and the Government throws money at Uisce Éireann. Councillors Séamie Morrison and Phyll Bugler, Ms Emma Kennedy, the team here last week and all the others who are opposed to this - not for any selfish reasons, but for the sake of the ecology, the River Shannon, the region and sanity - are not going to go away easily because it is riddled with mistakes. There will be judicial reviews and God knows what else, and it will fall down all over the place because it is based on a tissue of false information instead of proper statistics.

It is important to restate why we need the project. Currently, the water supply in the eastern and midlands region faces a number of serious challenges. A single source - the River Liffey - supplies 85% of the water requirements for 1.7 million people in the greater Dublin area. This dependency on the Liffey results in a serious vulnerability to risks such as prolonged drought and-or contamination, not just for Dublin, but for the whole of the eastern and midlands region. With forecasts showing that the region will need 34% more water by the year 2044 than is available today, this situation is not sustainable. The project will address these challenges and provide a secure water supply for housing development and economic growth across eastern and midlands region. The project works in tandem with ongoing leakage reduction efforts. Uisce Éireann is investing over €2 billion in leakage reduction under the revised national development plan. Fixing leaks is, of course, essential but it is only part of the solution. Fixing leaks alone will not meet the needs of the region nor will it address the issue of over-reliance on the River Liffey. A new sustainable source of water is required alongside continued leakage reduction. The project went for planning permission in December last year and construction is hoped to commence in 2028, subject to planning permission being granted and not challenged via litigation, so Uisce Éireann is hoping to complete the project by 2032. The project will work in tandem with Uisce Éireann's other major project, namely, the greater Dublin drainage project. Uisce Éireann will continue to work to accelerate the delivery of this vital infrastructure and this process has already been greatly aided by reforms that the Government has made as part of implementing the accelerating infrastructure report.