Water Services
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-28
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Christopher O'Sullivan (FF), Cork South-West

I thank Senator O'Loughlin for raising this issue. I hope there may be something for her in the answer, certainly around the technicalities and the question about light at the end of the tunnel. There is nothing in my response about communication, but it is not good enough if communications are not accurate or are not helpful. Uisce Éireann is improving its whole communications process massively, so I will certainly reflect it back to the Department and to Uisce Éireann that better communication is needed. If people are informed, it takes away a lot of the frustration. That is a key aspect.
On the supply and the pressure issue the Senator raised, Uisce Éireann is building capacity. We are funding it now to the tune of approximately €12 billion up to 2030. That is significant funding. Its personnel has also increased significantly in recent years. Its capacity is growing so it should be able to respond to issues like this. Wastewater can be far more problematic, as the Senator will be aware, but supply should be more straightforward, I think. I am not a water engineer so there may be technicalities there, but I will certainly bring back the message about communication.
Specifically on the projects at Allenwood reservoir, Hillsborough and Newbridge in County Kildare, Uisce Éireann has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services, including planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local levels. Neither I nor the Minister, Deputy Browne, has operational function in such matters. We always have to introduce that caveat when we speak about these matters. However, we made enquiries for the Senator and understand that the issues impacting supply that she raised are primarily due to sustained high demand on the network, which has led to critically low reservoir levels and intermittent outages for customers in the area. Uisce Éireann has a range of measures in place to address these challenges and restore stable supply. Pressure management and network reconfiguration measures are being implemented to optimise water distribution and improve resilience across the network. In addition, leakage detection is ongoing across the impacted wider network to identify and repair leaks as quickly as possible. The network is being closely monitored on an ongoing basis, with operational teams responding in real time to changing demand and supply conditions.
Turning to Hillsborough, Newbridge, I am informed that a combination of operational issues occurred in the area yesterday impacting water pressure and supply, including unauthorised abstraction of water from the network by a third party. In addition, a leaking air valve was identified and repaired and a burst watermain in the Greatconnell area, which serves Hillsborough, was also repaired earlier that day. These issues coincided with a period of exceptionally high demand on the network, which further increased pressure on local supply. To support network recovery, Uisce Éireann plans to carry out a controlled overnight operation to optimise water levels in storage, which is not expected to result in any impact on customers.
As I said, there is nothing in the answer about the communication issues the Senator highlighted. It is certainly something I will report back.
The Senator can see that operational procedures are being carried out to improve distribution and remedy the issue around pressure and leakages. I can speak to this as it is an issue in my constituency. Where there are repeated leakages, it is almost like a patchwork that needs to be constantly fixed. If leakages are happening at such a frequent level, the best thing to do is to completely replace the pipework. In the long run, that is the way to go. I will speak to Uisce Éireann about that option. I thank the Senator for raising the issue.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-28/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:01+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-28