20. Provisions, Contingencies and Capital Commitments
Provisions
|
Capital provisions €’000 |
Self-insured claims €’000 |
Legal provisions €’000 |
Customer refund provision €’000 |
Other provisions €’000 |
Total €’000 |
|
At 1 January 2025 |
(48,751) |
(30,462) |
(18,851) |
(13,425) |
(2,894) |
(114,383) |
Provisions made |
(22,614) |
(7,542) |
(507) |
- |
(887) |
(31,550) |
Provisions released |
995 |
3,946 |
133 |
185 |
- |
5,259 |
Provisions utilised |
6,193 |
4,294 |
332 |
- |
20 |
10,839 |
At 31 December 2025 |
(64,177) |
(29,764) |
(18,893) |
(13,240) |
(3,761) |
(129,835) |
Analysed as follows:
|
31-Dec-25 €’000 |
31-Dec-24 €’000 |
|
Non-current |
(90,037) |
(80,443) |
Current |
(39,798) |
(33,940) |
Total |
(129,835) |
(114,383) |
Capital provisions
Capital provisions relate to land acquisition and wayleave obligations arising from Uisce Éireann’s capital investment programme, and other obligations on capital projects. Settlement of these obligations will occur as individual projects progress to construction stage and negotiations with landowners are concluded. Accordingly, cash outflows are expected to arise on a phased basis up to 10 years post completion of the project, with timing subject to uncertainty due to the outcome and duration of individual negotiations and investment delivery.
Self-insured claims
The Company is self-insured in respect of certain injury and damage claims. The year-end provision is for the estimated costs of incidents that have occurred up to 31 December 2025. Payments are made as the cases are settled. The charge is included in the income statement under operating costs. A revised estimate is established at each reporting date (or regularly) to ensure that the provision recognised reflects the best estimate of the costs eventually to be borne by the Company, applying latest available claims experience.
Legal provisions
Legal provisions represent the Company’s best estimate of the expenditure required to settle present obligations associated with unresolved legal cases at the reporting date. In assessing the likely outcome of each case, the Company bases its assessment on advice received from legal experts. A revised estimate is established at each reporting date to ensure that the legal provision recognised reflects the best estimate of the costs eventually to be borne by the Company and the timing of settlement.
Customer refund provision
Pursuant to section 22 of the Water Services Act 2017, Uisce Éireann was required to refund to customers €171.7 million in cash which had been previously collected from domestic customers. This customer refund programme was funded by the Government, through a government grant with the sole condition that the funding be used to refund domestic customers and to discharge the associated administration.
At 31 December 2025, the Company continued to recognise a liability of €13.2 million (2024: €13.4 million) for refunds due to domestic customers, where either refund cheques issued have not been presented for encashment, or where the customers have not notified the Company of their updated contact details. A corresponding asset of €12.9 million (2024: €13.0 million) (note 11) was also recognised, which represented the amounts receivable from the Government to meet the Company’s unfunded liabilities under the customer refund programme. At 31 December 2025, cash in bank of €0.3 million (2024: €0.5 million) was held by the Company in respect of the customer refund programme. Cashflows in respect of the programme are presented in note 14 as “exceptional items” consistent with previous years.
Other provisions
Other provisions include lease dilapidation provisions, contractor retention claims and other present obligations identified at the reporting date.
The Company has no asset decommissioning obligations recognised at the reporting date. It is the Company’s policy to capitalise any such obligations as part of the asset to which they relate.
Contingencies
The Company is subject to various litigation, claims, contract disputes and property agreements in the ordinary course of operations. While any such proceedings and agreements have an element of uncertainty, we do not expect the ultimate resolution of these proceedings to have a material adverse effect on our results from operations, operating cash flows or net asset financial position.
As part of the due diligence process to agree the assets and liabilities to be transferred from each Local Authority to the Company, an exercise was conducted to identify all contingent liabilities and disclose them in the financial statements, if they met the disclosure criteria of IAS 37.
There are no other material contingent liabilities that the Company is aware of that require disclosure.
Capital commitments
|
2025 €’000 |
2024 €’000 |
|
Capital expenditure that has been contracted for but has not been provided for |
850,270 |
839,034 |