Water: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21
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Marie Sherlock (LAB), Dublin Central

The planning permission for the project in Clonshaugh has gone through and the judicial review has been withdrawn. We need to ensure there is no impediment to the development of this vital project for the north side of Dublin, particularly for the 6,000 houses in my constituency of Dublin Central that rely on the development of this wastewater project.
The issue I want to raise today is with regard to lead in our pipes. It is a significant issue in Dublin and in other parts of the country. The reality is that we have a water directive from 2020, and arguably the Government is taking a very pedestrian pace with regard to its transposition. It will be 2036 when we will see the legal limit go from ten units per litre to five units per litre. I believe the Government needs to show leadership and move much more speedily on this.
Another key issue is that in 2023 the Environmental Protection Agency flagged very serious issues with regard to the pace at which Irish Water is replacing individual lead pipe connections across Dublin. At that stage only 35% of connections were done. We need to see a much greater increase in this. This comes back to funding. Issues in my community in Phibsborough and in other communities have been detected because of academics testing in our communities and finding extraordinarily high levels of lead. We are not quite clear on why this is happening and whether it is the public system or the connections in people's households. We have asked Irish Water to undertake comprehensive testing of the area and it has come back to say it will do spot checks in particular areas, which is welcome, but it is not comprehensive. We need to give certainty because of the impact of lead on people. We know it causes huge damage in particular to infants, young people and older people. People need to be given this information. My clear call to the Minister is to make sure Uisce Éireann is properly resourced and financed to get on with the job of replacing lead connections in Dublin and give an assurance to everybody out there that they have little or no lead in their systems.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-31T01:00:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-21