Water Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-18
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Joe Neville (FG), Kildare North

I thank the Minister for State. Unfortunately, I have heard a lot of that before - not from the Minister of State but from Uisce Éireann - during my time as a councillor and since I was elected as a TD. I raised this matter on Questions on Policy or Legislation with the Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Harris, on 30 April. That was three days after the pipe burst on 27 April. The kids at Confey Community College were here and, like many of their counterparts in the other schools in Leixlip, they were sent home. Last week, on 9 June, we had another outage. The water goes off a 6 p.m. and does not come back on until 3 a.m. It is gone all evening and most of the night. Children cannot be bathed. Elderly people do not have access to water.
That is the reality of life in Leixlip. People can, within reason, estimate that every five or six weeks the water is going to go. We have Intel in Leixlip. The company employs 5,000 people. We know that we can build infrastructure. Infrastructure has been developed. One of the most technologically advanced semiconductor plants in the world is located there, but we have a pipe that bloody bursts every month, which leaves people without water. Breweries in the area are impacted. Other businesses and coffee shops cannot open as a result of the same issue. All we need to do is fix a pipe.
As stated, I raised this matter when I was a councillor. I am raising it again as a TD. I do not want to be coming in here every month or six weeks to raise the same issue. This is about the basics. It is about people being able to have a shower. It is about being able to drink water. It is about the elderly people knowing that they can use their toilets. To be frank, it is not good enough. What Uisce Éireann said in the reply is simply not good enough. It has not been good enough for the past couple of years since it made the same reply to me when I was a councillor. Unfortunately, I will have to keep raising this matter until it is resolved. I do not want to hear excuses or about the plans, ideas, concepts or struggles Uisce Éireann is having because, frankly, its delivery in north Kildare across all areas has not been good enough. It needs to do much better.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-18