Delivering for Ireland: Building Capacity, Enabling Growth, and Putting People First
2025 stands as a landmark year for Uisce Éireann, defined by our unwavering commitment to delivering secure, safe, and sustainable water services for Ireland’s communities and businesses. Our purpose is clear: to enable national growth, support Government housing targets, and safeguard public health and the environment, while living our values every day.
Housing and Growth: Meeting National Ambitions
Supporting Ireland's housing and economic growth remains central to our strategy, as we continue to rise to the challenge of delivering safe, reliable water services across the country. The Uisce Éireann Strategic Funding Plan (2025-2029) sets out the requirement of €10.3 billion (in nominal terms) investment in capital infrastructure and an additional €2 billion (2025-2030, noting €1.7 billion 2025-2029) ringfenced investment under the updated and revised National Development Plan for the delivery of infrastructure to enable Government’s ambitious targets for housing and growth.
We fully welcome and are actively participating in the recently established structures aimed at identifying barriers to delivery, finding solutions to alleviate them and ensuring effective coordination to utilise existing and potential infrastructure capacity in supporting the delivery of housing – including the Accelerating Infrastructure Task Force and Expert Group, and the Housing Activation Office.
Strategic Infrastructure and Capacity Challenges
This year, we reached major milestones in progressing and delivering once-in-a-generation projects.
- Greater Dublin Drainage (GDD) Project – Planning approval achieved, unlocking future wastewater treatment capacity for the equivalent of half a million people living and working in the Greater Dublin Area. This project will safeguard public health, improve and protect the environment and support the delivery of housing in this area. In 2026, procurement processes are progressing with enabling works to commence in 2027.
- Water Supply Project (Eastern & Midlands Region) – Successful submission of the Strategic Infrastructure Development planning application and associated Compulsory Purchase Order in December, following extensive public consultation and completion of all technical and environmental assessments. In 2026, the procurement processes are progressing in tandem with the planning process to ensure readiness for the delivery phase.
- Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade – The completion of the capacity and compliance related scope on the project means Ringsend can now serve 2.4 million population equivalent, ensuring compliance with the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive and resilience for Ireland’s largest treatment facility.
- Athlone Main Drainage Project – €114 million investment to modernize wastewater infrastructure and protect the Shannon catchment which will be complete in early 2026.
- Arklow Wastewater Treatment Plant – The completion of this project six months ahead of schedule and on budget has completely eliminated the discharge of raw sewage into the Avoca River, ending decades of untreated wastewater entering the environment.
“Our purpose is to safeguard public health and the environment, enable national growth, support Government housing targets, while living our values every day.”
Water Quality and Scientific Excellence
Delivering safe, clean drinking water remains our priority. In 2025, Ireland’s public water supplies continued to achieve exceptional standards, with 99.8% compliance with Drinking Water Regulations (as per the EPA Drinking Water Quality in Public Supplies 2024 published in 2025). This performance reflects the dedication of our teams and the strength of our monitoring systems. A major milestone this year was the opening of our National Laboratory in Limerick in August 2025, which significantly enhances our scientific and technical capability. This state-of-the-art facility will support advanced water quality testing, research, and innovation, ensuring that Uisce Éireann remains at the forefront of protecting public health and meeting regulatory requirements for decades to come.
Safety Culture and Recruitment: Investing in People
Our people are our greatest asset. The transition of water services staff from Local Authorities to Uisce Éireann is a cornerstone of our transformation, and we are committed to supporting all colleagues through this period of change. Recruitment and integration of new talent, alongside investment in technology and training, are strengthening our organisation and enhancing our ability to deliver for customers and communities. Storm Éowyn, one of the most severe storms of the 2024/25 winter season, caused widespread power and communications outages across Ireland and placed significant strain on critical national infrastructure, and I am proud of how our organisation responded. Through strong preparedness, proactive planning and the dedication of our teams, we maintained continuity of supply for hundreds of thousands of customers despite widespread power outages. Pre‑emptive deployment of backup generation and 24/7 national coordination through our National Operations Management Centre were central to this response. Our people worked tirelessly in challenging conditions to protect public health and restore services safely. This experience reinforced the value of sustained investment in resilience as extreme weather events become more frequent.
Keeping each other safe is a core value. We believe no activity is so important or urgent that it cannot be done safely. We empower employees and our third party delivery partners to stop work if they think it's unsafe. Safety remains paramount. Tragically there were two fatalities this year on third-party delivery partner-controlled sites. On 18 of September 2025, a person working on behalf of one of our third-party delivery partners had a fatal accident during works at Ballycotton in Cork. A separate fatal incident occurred on Saturday 29th November involving a person working for one of our third-party delivery partners on an infrastructure delivery upgrade project in Mayo. Both incidents are currently under investigation with the Health and Safety Authority. In 2026 we will continue our focus on education and awareness training regarding risks and dangers associated with construction activity.
Unlocking Opportunities
Despite significant progress, Uisce Éireann faces considerable challenges. Many assets require major maintenance, upgrades, or replacement to meet modern standards and future demand. Legacy issues such as water discolouration and Developer Provided Infrastructure (DPI) remain a priority, requiring sustained investment and innovation to ensure safe, reliable water services for all communities. The ongoing transfer of Local Authority water services staff to Uisce Éireann is complex, with full integration targeted by the end of 2026. This transformation presents enormous opportunities to build a single national utility but demands careful planning and engagement to support colleagues through change.
Uisce Éireann undertakes a significant amount of direct engagement with elected representatives and public representatives through the dedicated direct phone and email channels, workshops, meetings, and formal briefings for Councillors, TDs, and Senators, and ongoing one-to-one engagements with Government and Opposition representatives. Nevertheless, we recognise the need to review how we manage these interactions and improve on the services offered. In 2026, the organisation will undertake a formal review of our engagement with input from across the entire business focusing on how it can improve this important service and channel of information about its activities and operations throughout Ireland.
Previously, planning and regulatory processes led to unacceptable delays in delivering critical infrastructure, holding back progress for far too long. I am determined that we overcome these barriers, and I am proud to represent Uisce Éireann on the Steering Committee for the Government’s Accelerating Infrastructure Task Force, established to address systemic challenges in national infrastructure delivery. Uisce Éireann has actively contributed to this work, including through the secondment of experienced experts to support crossgovernment collaboration. The Task Force published a 30 point Action Plan in December 2025, setting out targeted reforms to accelerate infrastructure planning, approval and delivery across the State. Through this work with Government and key stakeholders, we are driving implementation at pace to ensure that delays of the past do not define our future.
Removing these barriers is critical to unlocking housing growth and enabling Ireland’s water and wastewater networks to meet future needs. We have partially secured multi-annual funding through the Commission for Regulation of Utilities’ Revenue Control 4 (RC4) Draft Determination which provides some certainty to deliver ambitious programmes, but long-term investment, estimated at €60 billion over the next 25 years (in 2022 terms), will be required to truly transform Ireland’s water services.
Looking Ahead
As we move forward, our priorities are clear: accelerate the delivery of water and wastewater infrastructure, address capacity and legacy challenges, maintain our strong safety culture, progress the integration and recruitment of staff, and champion reform to support Ireland’s growth and sustainability goals.
I would like to thank the Board, the Executive team, all Uisce Éireann staff, our delivery partners, and colleagues in Local Authorities for their dedication and commitment throughout 2025. Together, we are building a sustainable future for Ireland, delivering water services that enable communities to thrive.
Niall Gleeson
Chief Executive Officer