Uisce Éireann has warned Dublin City Council over worsening water and sewage capacity that could jeopardise the local authority’s plans for a new suburb of 6,000 homes on one of the capital’s largest industrial estates.
Water capacity for Dublin has deteriorated to “amber status” level, Uisce Éireann told the council, meaning supplies are now “constrained”.
The utility company also said future population growth in Dublin is “dependent” on the construction of a new municipal sewage plant.
Uisce Éireann wrote to the council in response to the draft Ballyboggan Masterplan, which will govern the redevelopment of the 77 hectare Dublin Industrial Estate opposite Glasnevin Cemetery.
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The plan, the largest regeneration of industrial lands since the Dublin Docklands, is, the council said, crucial to meeting “national targets for housing delivery on brownfield lands within urban areas”.
Uisce Éireann said housing growth for Dublin is dependent on the delivery of two large-scale water and wastewater projects, which have been long delayed and are not now expected to be in place within the development plan timeframe for the Dublin Industrial Estate.
The statement is at variance with the utility’s position two years ago when the council began planning for the rezoning of the vast landbank, which is close to the suburbs of Cabra, Ashtown and Finglas.
In May 2023, Uisce Éireann said the industrial estate was in an “established water network and is located adjacent to large trunk mains. In general, the area may require local upgrades”, which would be examined when connections were requested.
In relation to wastewater, in the same letter Uisce Éireann said there was an “established sewer network in this area” with possible upgrades to pumping stations required.
However, in recent days Uisce Éireann told the council that since it made its 2023 submission, Dublin’s water supplies have “turned to amber status” and were now constrained.
“This status will most likely remain in place until the [Shannon to Dublin] Water Supply Project is in place.” This project is not expected to be completed until after 2032.
I think we need to look at things like statutory timelines for connections to water, to electricity, because there’s far too many delays
— Tánaiste Simon Harris
Similarly, it said growth in the capital’s population was “dependent on the completion of the Greater Dublin Drainage Project” to process the sewage of north Dublin. This project has so far been in the planning system for seven years.
The submission to the council, is the latest in a series of warnings from Uisce Éireann on its ability to supply new homes.
Uisce Éireann chairman Jerry Grant recently told a Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland conference that the State‘s water and sewerage systems “are in a desperate state” because of “extraordinary complacency” and “passive indifference”.
He warned that a new approach from the Government was needed if targets of 50,000 homes annually are to be met.
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Mr Grant also outlined funding concerns in a letter to previous minister for housing Darragh O’Brien.
Meanwhile, Tánaiste Simon Harris has indicated Uisce Éireann could face new legally binding deadlines for connecting new housing projects to the water system.
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In an interview with The Irish Times Inside Politics podcast, the Fine Gael leader said he did not want to be “provocative” in dealing with the utility or the ESB, “but we need to know that in return for providing Irish Water X billion more, that would result in Y more homes. Similar for the ESB in connections”.
“I think we need to look at things like statutory timelines for connections to water, to electricity, because there’s far too many delays in relation to that.”
Having such obligations for connections would, he said, “make a very significant difference in terms of building up the delivery of homes”.
The council will review submissions on the masterplan before city councillors are later this year asked for approval to allow the land to be rezoned from industrial to residential use.
