Water: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21
============================================================

Gillian Toole (IND), Meath East

I am thankful for the opportunity this evening. I commend the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Browne, in particular for the initiative to work with developers on wastewater and to accelerate the delivery of housing. That is something that we would have raised in Meath in various meetings with Uisce Éireann over the years. I also commend the water caretakers in Meath County Council, who have done sterling work, often bridging the gap in terms of communication with residents.
I wish to flag a couple of points in relation to communication.
We have some serious water issues in Dunboyne and Trim in County Meath at the moment. I refer in particular to one housing estate in Dunshaughlin called the Willows. Communication on the part of Uisce Éireann is absolutely key. I remind consumers to sign up for the text alert scheme. That would be very timely and welcome. The wastewater piece for infrastructure delivery is in train. Perhaps something in connection with the development companies and the delivery of water in the first instance is going to be looked at.
Another matter I wish to flag is the emerging area of energy hubs and the colocation of battery storage, solar farms, gas peaking plants, etc. Given that this may be coming down the line, there will be a need to estimate water requirements in advance. There are quite a number of data centres in County Meath. I am of the view that rainwater harvesting should be looked at, particularly as conditions of planning, either current or retrospective, would be a high priority. This is linked to the issue of judicial reviews. There have been many submissions to the Department in relation to the Aarhus Convention. There are genuine and legitimate concerns on the part of residents who want the infrastructure to the put in place first. We need housing delivery, but the concerns of existing residents in areas that are under pressure in the context of water infrastructure need to be listened to.
On farming, the nitrates derogation, etc., I draw the Minister of State's attention to a Facebook page called Fighting Dirty. It is based in County Louth and provides evidence-based information on wastewater outlets.

---

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