Irish Water’s plan to take Shannon water to meet needs of greater Dublin area is complex

Irish Water’s plan to extract water from the lower reaches of the Shannon to meet the needs of the greater Dublin area is not a straightforward matter of pipes and pumps, according to Pat Aherne.

And he knows more than most about the complex issues which face the proposed €900m project. For years he worked with the technical staff at Ardnacrusha ESB power station which impacts hugely on the lower Shannon system. And as a keen angler he knows every nook and cranny of that stretch of the river.

Pointing to an aerial photograph in the sitting room of his bungalow, Mr Aherne shows that his home just outside O’Briensbridge, Co Clare, is only a few hundred metres from the man-made lake at the weir of the Parteen Basin, the source of the proposed new Dublin supply. Parteen Basin is actually more than 13km up river from the village of Parteen near the Ardnacrusha station.