Uisce Éireann Infrastructure Delivery, Accountability and Repair Timelines: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-14
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Michael Collins (II), Cork South-West

I move:
That Dáil Éireann:
acknowledges that:
— a significant proportion of the State's public drinking water and wastewater infrastructure remains leaking, overloaded, obsolete or non-compliant, resulting in boil water notices, service interruptions, supply restrictions and untreated or partially treated wastewater discharges;
— persistent delays in the delivery, repair and replacement of water and wastewater infrastructure have created direct blockages to housing delivery, public health protection, economic activity and environmental compliance;
— Uisce Éireann has repeatedly failed to meet expected performance standards in leakage reduction, network renewal, upgrade delivery and system resilience, while many communities continue to endure chronic outages, repeated pipe failures and wastewater incidents;
— existing statutory and regulatory frameworks do not impose clear and enforceable repair or replacement timelines on Uisce Éireann following the detection of leaks, bursts or wastewater failures;
— communities affected by repeated infrastructure failures currently have no guaranteed consultation process, no published delivery schedule and no certainty as to whether or when permanent solutions will be delivered; and
— the centralisation of water services has weakened local accountability, reduced responsiveness to community-level failures and contributed to slow and opaque decision-making on urgent infrastructure needs;
notes that:
— prolonged discharges of raw or partially treated wastewater into rivers, coastal waters and sensitive catchments represent an ongoing risk to public health and environmental quality and undermine confidence in national infrastructure governance;
— large volumes of treated drinking water continue to be lost through chronic leakage, placing avoidable pressure on treatment capacity and increasing operational costs;
— repeated short-term repairs without full pipe replacement have resulted in cycles of failure in many towns, villages and urban neighbourhoods, leaving residents without confidence in the reliability of public water supply;
— the absence of statutory repair deadlines has allowed wastewater leaks and discharges to persist for extended periods without guaranteed interim mitigation or permanent remediation;
— delays in water and wastewater capacity upgrades have directly impeded housing delivery, public services, tourism and enterprise development, despite lands being zoned and planning permission granted; and
— the current model provides no structured mechanism for early engagement with communities experiencing persistent failures, unlike the pre-planning consultation processes required for private development; and
calls on the Government to:
— legislate for mandatory statutory timelines, requiring Uisce Éireann to commence mitigation works for wastewater leaks or discharges within one month of detection and to complete permanent repairs or provide an approved interim solution within a defined and enforceable period thereafter;
— require Uisce Éireann to establish binding replacement timelines for water mains in communities experiencing repeated bursts or chronic leakage, including full pipe renewal rather than recurring temporary repairs;
— place a statutory obligation on Uisce Éireann to publish repair and replacement schedules for affected communities, including clear dates, scope of works and interim measures;
— require Uisce Éireann to introduce a formal community engagement process, comparable to pre-planning consultation, in areas experiencing persistent water or wastewater failures, ensuring residents and local authorities are informed in advance of proposed works, timelines and expected outcomes;
— require Uisce Éireann to operate a properly functioning communication line and escalation channel for public representatives, to allow timely resolution of issues, clear status updates and improved accountability;
— establish binding delivery schedules for wastewater treatment plants, network upgrades and strategic leakage-reduction programmes, with annual reporting to the Houses of the Oireachtas on progress, delays and compliance;
— reform regulatory oversight so that verified wastewater discharges and serious non-compliance events are reported publicly in a timely and transparent manner, with escalation mechanisms where failures persist;
— require Uisce Éireann to publish a national infrastructure capacity and delivery map identifying constraints, upgrade priorities and timelines to support housing activation and public infrastructure planning;
— allow a regulated alternative delivery route for essential water and wastewater projects where Uisce Éireann cannot provide capacity within a reasonable timeframe, using approved public/private or developer-led models, subject to domestic regulatory approval and public ownership or control of strategic water assets; and
— establish a performance-linked funding framework for Uisce Éireann and relevant agencies, tying elements of capital allocation to timely delivery, leakage reduction, repair compliance, infrastructure resilience and environmental performance.
Our motion speaks to a truth. Too many communities in Ireland already know that our public water and wastewater systems are not just creaking, but they are failing, and those failures are costing us homes, health, habitats and hope. A significant portion of our infrastructure is leaking, overloaded, obsolete or non-compliant. That reality shows up as boil water notices, service interruptions, supply restrictions and raw or partially treated sewage discharges into our rivers and coastal waters. It shows up as stalled housing schemes, planning refusals and shuttered community amenities. It shows up in the daily lives of families who cannot rely on a glass of safe water from the tap. It shows up in the starkest terms in west Cork, where communities have waited not for months, but for years, and decades in some cases, for basic, permanent fixes.
This is not a funding footnote or a scheduling slip. It is a systemic problem of delivery, accountability and transparency. Uisce Éireann has repeatedly failed to meet performance standards on leakage reduction, network renewal, upgrade delivery and system resilience, while too many communities face chronic outages, repeated bursts and wastewater incidents with no certainty as to when permanent solutions will be delivered.
Our motion is rooted in the lived experiences we have brought to the House again and again. Allow me to set out a few of the worst affected places in Cork South-West. This is a national picture but I will give it closer to home at the moment. Since last July, Adrigole in the Beara Peninsula has suffered up to 14 water outages, cutting off farms, schools and crèches for days at a time. One outage led to closures. Others forced families with small babies to move out temporarily. A critical asbestos pipe along the Healy Pass needs replacement, yet crews have been out again and again for short-term fixes, sometimes for two weeks at a time, rather than replacing the failing section. People there rightly ask why a Dublin burst is addressed in hours, while Adrigole waits and waits. That is the definition of unequal services. Over Christmas, they had yet another water outage, making it 15 since last July.
Shannonvale, near Clonakilty, has endured a 26-year saga of sewage flooding a village green, which was a community field, and contaminating a local playground. Despite community action and repeated representation, transparency and timelines have been elusive. In 2025, Uisce Éireann was prosecuted by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, and fined in the District Court for breaches at Shannonvale Park, yet the core project still lacks a clear, funded and time-bound solution. Workshops are convened, cancelled and reconvened. Designs are approved and then sent back to the drawing board. It is a case study in institutional drift, with real environmental and public health consequences.
For a decade, untreated or poorly treated wastewater has repeatedly threatened Ballydehob Bay, part of the Roaringwater Bay and islands special area of conservation under the EU habitats directive.
I raised the case in this House. Community petitions have sought urgent action yet the upgrade remains stuck in a long queue while biodiversity and community development bear the cost. Across the towns of Goleen, Rosscarbery and Dunmanway, the theme is the same - no meaningful investment, rising environmental risk and growth stalled by infrastructure that is either at capacity or failing. In Dunmanway in particular, the wastewater treatment plant is operating at capacity and has overloaded imposing effective planning bans. That means young families cannot get permission to build homes in their own town. We are told proper relief may not come until 2032. A temporary job may be done just to seal up some modes but for a generation trying to put down roots, 2032 is not a plan; it is a lock on the door.
These are symptoms of a system that responds slowly, communicates poorly and plans without enforceable obligations to deliver. Our motion responds with the practical enforceable measures. We want statutory repair timelines. When a wastewater leak or discharge is detected, mitigation must begin within one month with a defined and enforceable timeframe to deliver permanent repair or an improved interim solution. Communities like Shannonvale cannot endure year after year of workshop purgatory. We want binding replacement schedules for chronic mains failures. Where bursts are repeated, their default must be full mains renewal and not another patch over of an asbestos or legacy pipe that is certain to fail again as Adrigole has shown. We want transparent public schedules. Uisce Éireann must publish repair and replacement schedules for affected areas with dates, scope and interim measures so people know what is coming and with no more opaque timelines and no more "we will revert".
We want formal community engagement for persistent failure. If private developers are obliged to consult in preplanning then a semi-State body should be obliged to engage with communities facing repeated failures before and not after the next outage. We want a functioning escalation channel for public representatives. When a school has to close, a plant overflows or a village green is flooded with sewage, there must be a live line and a mandated escalation path to a responsible decision-maker with authority to act.
We want binding delivery schedules and annual Oireachtas reporting. Wastewater plant network upgrades and strategic leakage reductions must be delivered to published timelines with transparent annual reporting to this House and progress delays and compliance. We want to reform regulatory oversight with timely public reporting. Verified discharges and serious non-compliance events should trigger prompt public reporting and escalation. Communities should not learn about failures from social media. We want national capacity and a delivery map. A live national map should be published identifying constraints, priorities and timelines. Housing cannot be planned on hope. Councils and communities need hard data to activate zoned lands. We want alternative regulated delivery routes. Where Uisce Éireann cannot provide capacity in a reasonable timeframe, we need a regulated path for public, private or developer-led delivery with domestic regulatory approval and public ownership or control of strategic assets. This is not ideology. It is urgency. We want performance linked to funding - the elements of capital allocation to timely delivery, leakage reduction, repair, compliance, resilience and environmental performance. We need to reward what works and stop paying indefinitely for what does not. We need deadlines. Focused delivery and transparency build trust, engagement prevents conflict and performance links funding and aligns incentives with outcomes. If these principles are standards in transport, health capital and even private utility regulation, they must be standard in water and wastewater too.
Take the housing emergency. Dunmanway today is the sharp edge of a national problem. Wastewater plants are at over capacity and were leaking, blocking permissions in towns and villages across the country. In Dunmanway alone, we have seen developments cancelled and young couples told to wait nine, ten or 12 years before they can build near family, jobs and schools. Without a statutory timeline and alternative delivery routes, we consign entire communities to stagnation
Consider environmental protection. Ballydehob's proximity to a special area of conservation means that repeated discharges are not just local nuisances; they are threatening habitats and biodiversity protected under EU law. Delay multiplies risk. An enforceable timetable and transparent reporting would turn "we are working on it" into a clear milestone with consequences for slippage. Look at public confidence. Shannonvale has endured a 26-year ordeal culminating in a prosecution and a fine but fines without fixes do not restore a park, clean a river or reassure a parent. Only delivery does that.
Our motion turns accountability into action with deadlines, schedules, engagement, alternative routes and funding that follows performance. Centralisation was supposed to standardise excellence. Instead too often it has standardised silence. When the people of Adrigole or Goleen, who have been waiting 26 years with raw sewage going into the river, cannot get a straight answer or a firm date, it is astonishing. I am in the community voluntary group there. We did our best to bring people from all over the world to the council in 1999 to try to resolve the crisis and here we are 2026 in the same situation. Raw sewage is still pouring into the river but the EPA turns a blind eye because it is Uisce Éireann. If a farmer was pouring sewage into clean rivers, there would be a national crisis and he would be put out of business within a few weeks so there are double standards here. I would like to know why the EPA is aiding and abetting Uisce Éireann's shocking record by not going after it and making it accountable. There were three fines in 2024 - three fines in Ireland. There are six communities where raw sewage is going into clean waters in west Cork alone so what the name of God is the EPA doing? It is sound asleep at the wheel and is aiding and abetting this carry on. We cannot get a straight answer for a firm date from Uisce Éireann for Rosscarbery, where raw sewage is going into the water, or Dunmanway, where we see growth capped by capacity and spills. When Shannonvale sees another workshop instead of a works crew, that is a failure of accountability as much as it is a failure of engineering. Local government, public representatives and community groups need structured statutory roles in signalling affairs, setting priorities and monitoring delivery. If we treat community feedback as an obstacle rather than an early warning system, we will keep learning the same lessons at an ever greater cost.
There is a myth that delay is cheaper. It is not. Chronic leakage and waste-treated drinking water inflate operational costs. Repeated emergency calls burn resources that would be better spent on permanent renewal. Stalled housing imposes fiscal and social costs while pollution triggers remediation, institutional damage and legal liability.
The choice is not spend now or save later. The real choice is between planned investment with accountability and unplanned crisis spending without end. Communities in west Cork and Ireland are not asking for luxuries. They are asking for the basics - safe water, reliable wastewater treatment plants, timely repairs and credible plans that they can see and trust. Adrigole should not be left counting its 14th outage, Shannonvale should not be left counting its 26-year problem, Ballydehob should not be left counting 17 years and Goleen should not be left counting 26 years. They should not be left counting the species at risk. Dunmanway should not be left counting the years to 2032 while a generation gives up on building homes.
This House has the power to change that. By supporting this motion, we move from promises to proof, from press releases to published schedules and from "we will revert" to "we will deliver". We will put timelines into law, transparency into operation and performance into funding. We will bring local voices into rooms and ensure that when things go wrong, there is a number to call and someone on the other end.

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:30+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-14