Planning delays affecting the Greater Dublin Drainage Project, including a second legal challenge, mean it will now be “at best” six years before it becomes operational, Uisce Éireann has forecast.
The water utility will tell the Dáil Public Accounts Committee on Thursday that further delays to key projects, such as the drainage scheme and a plan to bring water from the Shannon to Dublin, will have “serious consequences for the delivery of housing and broader economic growth”.
Additional hold-ups to these could “significantly hinder our progress towards essential climate and environmental objectives”, which would put “local communities and the wider environment at risk”, it will say.
In a written statement to the committee Niall Gleeson, chief executive of Uisce Éireann, said that, having secured permission for the Dublin drainage project in July, it is “disappointing the decision is being challenged for a second time”.
READ MORE
The drainage project, which is to include a new treatment plant in Clonshaugh that will serve up to 500,000 people, was identified as necessary more than a decade ago. But the planned development has been beset by planning issues.
Uisce Éireann said it initially sought planning permission for the project in June 2018, and, at that point, it expected it would be “complete and operational by 2025″. An Coimisiún Pleanála approved the application last July.
“As a result of the planning delays experienced, at best, the project may be delivered and operational by 2032. We are awaiting the outcome of a challenge to the recent decision,” it said.
Meanwhile, Uisce Éireann said it intends to submit a planning application before the end of the year for its controversial “once-in-a-generation” Water Supply Project Eastern and Midlands Region (WSP). The utility said the WSP, which involves plans to bring water from the river Shannon to Dublin, has the capacity to address the water supply needs for up to 50 per cent of the State’s population.
“The proposed project will provide Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow with a resilient, safe, secure water supply and will have infrastructure with capacity for future offtakes to serve communities in Tipperary, Offaly and Westmeath along the route,” the utility said. It will promote balanced regional development by redirecting water supplies currently serving Dublin to the counties of Louth, Meath, Wicklow, Carlow and Kildare. This, Uisce Éireann said, will create “new regional development opportunities”.
