Water: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21
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Aidan Farrelly (SD), Kildare North

Fintan O'Toole wrote a piece in the Irish Times this week about why Ireland is, in his opinion, governed so badly. One of the points he raised was that elected representatives of all parties and none spend so much time making representations to various services and bodies on behalf of constituents when our priority should be policy-making and developing legislation, whether nationally, regionally or locally. Water is one of the services public representatives make the most representations and raise the most cases about throughout the country. I have listened to much of this evening's debate with great interest arising from my time as a councillor and my time here in Leinster House. We have heard that, in every county, every constituency, every town, every village and every parish, there are significant problems with our water infrastructure. The Minister of State captured it quite succinctly in his opening statement. I support the investment this Government intends to make and the investment the previous Government made. It is certainly making a difference.
The population of County Kildare has increased from 120,000 to over 250,000 in 30 years. It has more than doubled in a very short span. Infrastructure development has not nearly kept pace. I could list off what that means for the people of Kildare. There are tankers going into Allenwood every day to empty sewage tanks because the system simply cannot keep up with demand. Schools throughout the constituency are trying to get new systems set up but they cannot get the services. There are consistent outages in Leixlip. The Dunboyne Road in Maynooth has been left in ruins by Irish Water contractors. There are a catalogue of issues.
In stark contrast, information Uisce Éireann provided to the Committee of Public Accounts last week shows that nearly 50 of the highest earners in that body, whose salaries are between €122,000 and €225,000, are getting an average bonus of nearly €22,000 a year. Is this Government willing to stand over that approach? We are seeing comprehensive failures from a strategic perspective. Let me be very clear about the people on the ground in this utility. God knows they have been tested in Kildare. When they are called upon, they do incredible work. The problem is that, when they fix a hole, another hole arises down the road. The overall strategic development of our utility and water infrastructure is not fit for purpose in a county that continues to grow unsustainably. During that meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts last week, I asked the Comptroller and Auditor General whether there was any comparable utility in which bonuses like this are paid. In 2024, 93.5% of the utility's staff got their full bonus. This led me to think about what targets are being set for senior management within the utility. Is there governmental oversight of those? This does not happen in the ESB, CRU, EirGrid or anywhere else. Such lucrative bonuses are not paid while consistent systemic failures continue. That is my question for the Minister of State. He will not have time to come back to me on it but perhaps we can discuss it again. This financial model really needs re-evaluation. I implore the Government to take this matter quite seriously.

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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