Water: Statements Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21 ============================================================ Malcolm Byrne (FF), Wicklow-Wexford I will follow on from Deputy O'Meara, with whom I entirely agree on the accountability of Uisce Éireann. Last July I tabled a parliamentary question to the Minister around the question of accountability of Uisce Éireann to these Houses. While his office responded that he does not have a say in the operational matters, it was indicated that Uisce Éireann could be called before some of the parliamentary committees. That is not good enough. In terms of the response we get as elected TDs, we should be treated with more courtesy. Not so long ago I had a situation in Gorey where I had facilitated meetings with two development groups. One was from the Ferns-Camolin area, which the Minister knows very well, and the other from Aughrim, County Wicklow. In that case, officials from Uisce Éireann agreed to meet with me as an elected representative but were not happy to meet with the groups I had brought to meet with them. We must have a situation whereby a State utility is accountable to elected Members. I commend the Minister on all the work he is doing, particularly in terms of the announcements regarding housing activation and so on this week. The biggest domestic challenge is the construction of housing. Water and wastewater infrastructure is critical to that but I am not convinced that Uisce Éireann sees that as part of its core mission. The chief executive and senior personnel in Uisce Éireann should be waking up every morning and asking the question: "What are we doing to try to help in the construction of homes in Ireland?" The Minister and I both know from listening to developers that Uisce Éireann is one of the biggest barriers to home construction at the moment. We need to be more demanding of Uisce Éireann in terms of its responsibilities to us as democratically elected Members. I ask the Minister to look again at the Uisce Éireann legislation in terms of ensuring that Uisce Éireann becomes more accountable. Regarding the two specific schemes and the groups I brought in, these communities have been waiting for a long time for water and wastewater facilities. Aughrim is a beautiful village that cannot grow. We have been told if we allow a private developer to build its own treatment plant in the community, it will ultimately be taken over by Uisce Éireann provided it is up to spec. I welcome the Minister's reforms in that regard. It is absolutely critical if those planning applications go in, that the developers are supported both by Uisce Éireann and Wicklow County Council to ensure we can see homes built in a village like Aughrim. Similarly, the Minister will be very familiar with Camolin and Ferns and the requirements there. Those communities cannot expand because of the lack of water and wastewater capacity. One of the challenges in Camolin we know is that we have problems around pollution of the River Bann running right through Camolin village. Complaints have been made to the EPA about the need to address the problem of pollution of that river. We need to see a wastewater treatment plant put in place for Ferns and Camolin. Those communities have been waiting over 20 years. While it is great for some of the larger urban centres where water and wastewater treatment plants are built, it is also critical, even if it is only two or three projects every year, that in a number of villages, including those my colleague and friend Deputy O'Meara mentioned and the one's the Minister will be familiar with in counties Wexford and Wicklow, a scheme is put in place. The Minister knows, if those villages with no capacity currently have the capacity to build 20 to 30 homes every year, not alone will it help to address the housing crisis, it will also help to make those villages sustainable in terms of shops, schools, post offices and other facilities. I commend what the Minister is doing on housing, but it is not just about getting the developers building the houses. Housing depends essentially on electricity and crucially on water and wastewater connections. The Minister needs to be asking the chief executive and the board of Uisce Éireann whether their first question every morning is: "How are we helping people to build homes?" I do not believe it is. If we need to amend the legislation to ensure Uisce Éireann sees itself as part of that ecosystem and that we can expect more accountability as elected Members, we need to do it as soon as possible. --- 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/2026-01-21/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-31T01:00:51+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-21