Uisce Éireann: 'We can't fix everything everywhere all at once'

Sean Laffey, Uisce Éireann’s head of asset management and sustainability, told the committee that the utility has 'blockages and breakages all the way across the country'. File picture

Uisce Éireann has defended its record of upgrading water networks around the country, saying “we can’t fix everything everywhere all at once” and said it requires “multiples of what we’re getting” in terms of funding.

Addressing the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday, the utility said it would require “decades of investment” to bring the nation’s water and wastewater networks up to code.

It told the PAC that sustained capital investment of about €2bn a year for 25 years would be needed to “maintain and transform Ireland’s water and wastewater networks, address legacy deficits, improve resilience and compliance, and provide the additional capacity required for housing and economic growth”.

In July Uisce Éireann announced that it had recorded a pre-tax surplus of €396m in 2025, up €75m from the previous year.

Sean Laffey, Uisce Éireann’s head of asset management and sustainability, told the committee that the utility has “blockages and breakages all the way across the country”.

“There are other places where there is sewerage coming up in the streets,” he said. 

“We’re fixing it and we’re dealing with it on an emergency basis, and it will be dealt with on a priority basis.

“We can’t fix everything,” Mr Laffey said. 

“We can’t fix everything everywhere all at once. It’s impossible, and the legacy that we’ve been left with is going to require decades of investment,” he said in reference to the aged nature of the country’s water pipes, some of which he said dated to Victorian times.

“It’s going to require decades of investment, and the investment we are getting is record. But I can tell you, the long-term funding needs assessment for Uisce Éireann is multiples of what we're getting,” Mr Laffey said.

The committee heard that water supply remains in a critical state across the country, while drinking water supply in Dublin is particularly “on a knife edge”.

“We need an alternative supply in the city, we’re very reliant on the Vartry Reservoir and the Liffey,” said chief executive Niall Gleeson.

“We have three main treatment plants in the city, but if we lost one of those treatment plants we don’t have a backup. That’s the reality, which is not a good situation to have,” he said.

Head of water operations Margaret Attridge said the utility has been increasing its capacity piecemeal by “doing minor upgrades” to treatment plants. She said the current production capacity of 652 megalitres per day is only marginally ahead of demand, which stands at 645 megalitres.

Asked by Fianna Fáil’s Seamus McGrath how close the country had come to a full-scale supply crisis during the nationwide drought in the summer, Ms Attridge said, “we couldn’t keep up with the demand” in Dublin in particular.

She said the utility had been forced to introduce water conservation messaging that led to “a fantastic response from the public”.

“When people co-operate with us, we can flex through,” Mr Gleeson said, adding that the country had been “lucky” last summer as the dry conditions had followed “quite a wet winter”, meaning that water storage supplies had been optimal.

Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy told the committee that the Commission for Regulation of Utilities had imposed a €31m penalty on Uisce Éireann for its failure to meet targets for water leakage reduction between 2020 and 2024.

However, Mr Gleeson insisted the company is “not driven by the CRU’s penalties”.

“We need that water in a lot of towns and cities around the country because we just don’t have the supplies,” he said.