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

As the Minister of State heard from each and every person who made a contribution here, accountability and communication are a massive issue with Uisce Éireann. That is the message that must go back from here. I know that People Before Profit had issues, as expressed by Deputy Boyd Barrett, but I do not see any amendment from its Deputies to this motion. They could have put in amendments. Anyway, that is another story and that is their choice.
Looking at the Government's amendment, one would wonder whether we are even talking about the same issue. Our motion describes infrastructure failure. The amendment avoids that reality and instead lists the scale of operations. We say that delays block housing and economic activity while they claim investment will support housing delivery, as if no delays exist. We highlight repeated failures while they cite progress. We criticise centralisation while they defend it. We warn of environmental risk but they talk about future improvements. We call leakage a crisis and they say it is improving. Let us deal in facts. In November 2025 the Commission for Regulation of Utilities fined Uisce Éireann €20 million for failing to meet leakage reduction targets. It saved 90 million litres instead of the 176 million litres required. That is not progress. That is a failure with a penalty. Yet, in the same year the Exchequer allocated over €2.2 billion to Uisce Éireann.
Communities like Adrigole, Shannonvale, Ballydehob, Goleen, Rosscarbery and Dunmanway still face outages, sewage spills and planning bans. Funding without accountability is not delivery; it is drift. Our motion demands enforceable timelines, transparent schedules, community engagement, and performance-linked funding. The Government's amendment offers none of that. It offers words, not guarantees.
For far too long people have endured broken promises and short-term fixes. Today we can end that cycle. I ask the Minister of State to support this motion and stop putting in an amendment to try to mess it up and kick the can down the road. He should send a clear message that accountability in water services is not optional; it is essential. That is what I am asking in the motion and this is what Deputy O'Flynn has spoken about. From 2025 to 2029 it is expected that this Government will be giving at least €16.9 billion to Irish Water. Why in the name of God is there nothing built into that funding to make sure there is going to be accountability and communication?
I am going to another public meeting this weekend back down in Adrigole in west Cork. I went to one two months ago also. I am no further ahead today than I was two months ago. We have a Minister of State going to that meeting as well. He might have some progress for us. Certainly we were all to work together and yet we have got no further with the action group. We were without water over Christmas. The area was 15 times without water, including over Christmas. It is not a joke. It is being dealt with like a joke by Uisce Éireann. It gives us a generic reply but that is not accountability. That is not communication. It is a disgrace. That is what it is, pure and simple. Uisce Éireann will be funded with €16.9 billion and instead of supporting this motion and moving it in the right direction the Minister of State is putting in an amendment just to take it off the rails, but we will not accept that amendment as such.
I will name a few of the issues that we have down in my own constituency. How many more have spoken today about their own constituencies and the crises that they are in? Councillor Danny Collins represents the Bantry-Schull-Castletownbere electoral area. In the Beach Road area 1.5 km of pipe has needed to be replaced for the last number of years. There were 70 breaks in that local community. I mentioned Adrigole several times today. There were 15 breaks, with one over Christmas. Again, there was no accountability, no reply, no indication of when that is going to be resolved, with no date or anything given to the local community. There is nothing other than Uisce Éireann is sympathetic and there was a dry summer and there is wet weather and all this nonsensical rubbish that comes back to us.
In Castletownbere they are talking about bringing in water. I heard Deputy Healy-Rae talking about bringing water from Shannon to Kenmare a while ago. Talk about the nonsense that we have to listen to in this world. They are talking about bringing water to Castletownbere from Inniscarra. In the name of God almighty are they out of their minds? Are these people out of their minds? Is someone in China making these decisions? Certainly no one in Ireland could even come up with that. If a child came up with that, honest to God you would have to teach him a small bit of lessons. Until the issue is resolved in Castletownbere people cannot get planning permission. Young people who want to get off and get a start in their lives and in their communities are being ruined by Uisce Éireann. This is being aided and abetted by this Government. This is what it boils down to. If the Government is just going to stand by, what can Councillor Danny Collins tell the people in Kealkill who want to build in their community but cannot do so because the wastewater treatment plant there is at capacity? They cannot build. That is that for them. Park the business.
We move then to Councillor Daniel Sexton of Independent Ireland. What can he do for the people of Shannonvale and Ballinascarty who have no water? They have raw sewage bleeding out of the bloody tanks into a local community ground that was given to the community. This has been going on for 27 or 28 years. Uisce Éireann got fined last year because the EPA decided to wake up one year out of the 28. Imagine that they also were without water over Christmas. How many breaks in water supply have the people of Shannonvale and Ballinascarty had? All they are being fed is, "We will have a public meeting and we will talk about it." It sounds good and it is all pats on the back stuff, but it is all a whole load of nonsense.
Councillor Daniel Sexton had a motion in December calling for the council to write to the Environmental Protection Agency to request it uses its full enforcement powers to compel Uisce Éireann to develop and implement an expedited action plan to end the sewage overflow and remediate the contamination of the park and the River Argideen. Imagine that leaking into the river water the people of Clonakilty are drinking, with the EPA fining Uisce Éireann on only 28 occasions. It is all a scam between the EPA and Uisce Éireann. It cannot be anything else. In 2024, it fined three communities: one in Clare, one in Macroom and the other in Shannonvale. That is three but there are five in west Cork pumping raw sewage into the clean waters that I know of. There could be ten more but I know of five, though the EPA could only find three throughout the country. That tells you the EPA is not fit for purpose. Uisce Éireann will not be fit for purpose until the Minister of State sits up and sees what can be done.
How can Councillor Daniel Sexton tell the people of Rosscarbery it will be fine and that when they are swimming again next summer they could be drinking a bit of raw sewage? That is what they were doing. That is an astonishing situation to find ourselves in year after year. The people of Rosscarbery hold meeting after meeting, and rightly so. They are rightly annoyed at public representatives and ask why this issue cannot be resolved. What is Councillor Daniel Sexton going to say to the people of Dunmanway? They have been promised a bit of an auld kiss the ass job now - excuse me, Ceann Comhairle, there are ladies present. We need proper infrastructure so people can build houses in Dunmanway, which they cannot currently. It is scandalous. The Minister of State is nodding but I have no problem in the wide earthly world, if he has time, to take him around to every one of those communities because I am not making it up.
In 1999 I worked with my local community in Goleen to put in a new sewerage system. It is pumping raw sewage into the clean water of Goleen still. If people want to build a few extra houses when the county development plan comes up the answer will be "No". This will be the greatest excuse to have no development anywhere. The wastewater tanks are full. They are at capacity so we cannot build and cannot do anything. What will I tell the people of Ballydehob? They have had raw sewage pumping into their waters for 17 years. This is a crisis we have from one town to another. I should not be using west Cork but it is a prime example for Ireland. We have seen one television programme after another explaining that to us.
We have seen fines for Uisce Éireann for €20 million because it cannot meet its leak targets. The EPA only fines it once a year. We do not want any fines. I am not encouraging the EPA. However, if the EPA knew there was a farmer breaking the rule for one week the business would be closed down, there would be massive fines and court appearances. That is the way it works in this country. We come down on the ordinary person but Uisce Éireann can break every rule and guideline throughout the country.
What about the people of Ballingeary? They are in the same situation. We have a representative there, Anna Marie O'Sullivan Cronin. Raw sewage is leaking into the clean waters there. It is a scandal beyond words and Uisce Éireann is let get away with it time and again.
The Minister of State's amendment is supporting that. It will make sure Uisce Éireann is protected and will not be held accountable. All we want is communication and accountability and I do not see either in the Minister of State's reply. It is a kick-the-can-down-the-road operation to protect Uisce Eireann. We will give it the billions it wants but it does not have to be accountable for one brown cent. It does not have to answer to a local council or the Deputy in that area. It is a case of Uisce Eireann doing what it wants and asking it how much it wants and then we pump that to it and walk away. Lord God, there is something wrong with the system across the line there.
The Government has to understand people are damn right to be frustrated. We are not here making up stories. Everyone here has a sad stories, and Government Deputies do too. They are in the same situation as me. They surely do not get the answers because we do not see the works being carried out. I am for accountability and communication at the very least.

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Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:30+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-14