Irish Water to up infrastructure spend

Irish Water has pledged to increase spending on infrastructure after it emerged less had been spent in 2014 than in any year over the past decade.

Irish Water’s capital spend on infrastructure up to November this year was €300m, according to RTÉ — considerably less than the previous annual average spend of €430m.

Ervia chief executive Michael McNicholas said Irish Water was committed to ramping up spending to €600m a year, repairing leaks and replacing pipes.

He told Morning Ireland the metering system would end up paying for itself and said, so far, the meters had indicated that the rate of leakage was actually worse than expected.

Elsewhere, Communications Minister Alex White said the appointment of a new board for Ervia — which was under his remit — would come before the Cabinet at its first or second meeting in January. He also said the Public Appointments Service and New Era were working together in managing the recruitment process.

He said a strategic approach had been taken to replacing the piping system and funding was needed for that.