Risk Management
Our Risk Management Environment
Throughout 2025, Uisce Éireann has continued to experience and respond to the dynamic and interconnected global risk landscape which is continually evolving. Uisce Éireann operates within a complex environment, managing and operating an aged asset infrastructure. Strong risk governance is integral to all our activities and our risk framework is designed to support the business in maintaining effective risk management in the ever-changing environment. We are committed to integrating and embedding effective risk management practices across all our activities to drive resilience in the operating environment.
Effective risk management within the organisation is key to achieving our strategic objectives while safeguarding the interests of our shareholders, customers and the wider community.
Risk management within Uisce Éireann also supports our forward planning and facilitates well informed and proactive risk-based decision making across our activities. The principles outlined in Uisce Éireann’s Organisational Risk Management Policy guide our risk management practices. Many of our risks are enduring, reflecting the long-term nature of our activities. These risks may evolve over time due to changing internal and external factors and events.
Despite a challenging risk landscape, Uisce Éireann successfully managed these challenges throughout 2025 and remains resilient in our responses. Risks with the potential to impact on our strategic objectives were fully assessed for their potential impacts, taking into consideration the risk mitigation measures which are being employed. These risks continue to be closely monitored, with our risk management approach forming an integral component of our overall organisational resilience.
Our approach to risk is championed under the following principles
Proactive Risk Culture
Ensures our risk culture is embedded within the organisation, enabling our people to have the awareness and understanding of the risks which have the potential to affect our ability to achieve our business objectives.
Competence
Ensures our people are competent and capable of managing risks effectively.
Effective Management
Ensures our risk management processes underpin the successful achievement of our business objectives by empowering our people to manage risks.
Risk Management Framework
During 2025, Uisce Éireann maintained an effective, integrated and structured approach to risk management, including a comprehensive risk management process to manage, review, monitor and report on the principal risks and uncertainties that could potentially impact the achievement of our strategic objectives.
Uisce Éireann’s Organisational Risk Management Framework, policy and processes, including our risk assessment methodology and risk categorisation, are well established and are consistently applied across the organisation, thus facilitating the identification, assessment, monitoring and reporting of risks at all levels of the organisation at an individual and aggregate level. This consistent approach also aids decision making and prioritisation of key mitigating actions.
Risk Culture
Uisce Éireann recognises that successful risk management is dependent on an effective risk culture, encompassing the behaviours, norms and attitudes of our people. Uisce Éireann management recognises the criticality of an effective risk culture which continuously evolves and develops and is promoted through ‘tone from the top’ and regular risk management training, communication and engagement sessions. We continuously and actively engage in horizon scanning to assist in identifying new and emerging risks. As a result, the importance of risk management, including clear accountability and ownership of risks, is evident throughout Uisce Éireann. It is recognised that everyone in the organisation has a role to ‘speak up’ about risk.
The Board and Risk Management
The Board has overall accountability for effective risk management across Uisce Éireann, regularly reviewing and challenging the principal risks presented to them by management, ensuring they are appropriately assessed, managed and mitigated.
The Audit and Risk Committee has the delegated authority to support the Board with these obligations. It is supported in maintaining an effective risk management environment by a dedicated risk team and a top-down, bottom-up risk governance model.
Risk Strategy
The Board approved Uisce Éireann Risk Strategy (2025-2029) sets out ambitions in the areas of leadership and governance, people and culture, integration and tools, and technology. The ambition of the strategy is to deliver further maturity of the risk model and to support and empower risk based decision making across the organisation.
Risk Appetite
During 2025, the Board set an updated Risk Appetite for the organisation, expressing the level and type of risk Uisce Éireann is willing to accept in the pursuit of its strategic objectives. The Risk Appetite is aligned to categories of risk to which Uisce Éireann is exposed and further aids effective risk based decision making and risk mitigation.
Deep Dives
During 2025, the Audit and Risk Committee considered the status of the principal risks and related mitigating actions and was presented with a number of Deep Dive Reviews to further enhance their understanding of certain principal risks and their key mitigations.
Organisational Risk Management (ORM) 4 step process
Uisce Éireann follows leading practice and uses a four-step process to ensure the consistent identification, assessment, response and monitoring of risk across the organisation, to support the delivery of our strategic objectives.
ORM 4 step process
Principal risks and uncertainties
Note: Risks are not listed in order of importance or priority.
Health and Safety | ||
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Risk A significant people, process or asset safety event resulting in serious injury/ fatality or negative impact to the health and well-being of staff, Water Services staff/ contractor, other third party delivery partners or the public. |
Context All health and safety legislation and arrangements must be adhered to in order to protect staff, third party delivery partners, and the public from injury or fatality and avoid potential prosecution and financial loss and reputational damage. Uisce Éireann is currently going through an organisational change, implementing a consistent approach to safety behaviours and culture. |
Key mitigations
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Infrastructure, Assets and Operational Delivery | ||
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Risk Failure to meet present and future water demand in the Greater Dublin Area, due to a range of factors including critical asset failure, lack of significant reduction in network leakage activity, failure to deliver the WSP project etc resulting in major water outage/ loss of water treatment or the inability to provide new connections. |
Context Without additional capacity, quantity and quality issues could result in potential water supply challenges, social and economic impacts, and a failure to support future growth demands. The supply of water to the Greater Dublin Area lacks resilience. Even with an improved network efficiency and leakage reduction, population growth, economic growth and climate change will exacerbate the water supply problem in the Greater Dublin Area. Until a major new source of water is delivered, Uisce Éireann will not be able to achieve the desired level of service and will continue to run the risk of sustained outages impacting homes and businesses. A key concern is that the Water Supply Project - Eastern and Midlands Region (the long-term strategic solution to meet future demands) may experience delays in the statutory consent process, similar to other Strategic Infrastructure Delivery projects including the Greater Dublin Drainage project. |
Key mitigations
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Risk Failure to deliver sufficient capacity nationally to enable government housing targets and support wider economic growth and development impacting Uisce Éireann’s ability to deliver on Government Policy/ Plans and meet the needs of future connecting customers. |
Context Uisce Éireann has a significant role to play in supporting Ireland’s housing targets, economic growth, compliance, and development goals. If Uisce Éireann cannot deliver sufficient capacity, it will have a reputational impact as well as the potential to impact economic growth and development. |
Key mitigations
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Risk Failure to provide adequate wastewater treatment and associated network infrastructure, particularly within the GDA resulting in significant environmental impacts, prosecution and/ or reputational impacts. |
Context Poor asset condition and/ or operational issues can lead to environmental damage and prosecution, together with delays to critical improvement works due to operational challenges and external factors (such as statutory or planning or legal challenges). An example of this is potential impact of delays in the completion of statutory processes for critical projects which directly impacts on the provision of strategic infrastructure essential to ensure the continued growth and development of the Greater Dublin Area. Changes in water quality standards, environmental regulations, and compliance requirements could lead to fines and/ or operational challenges. |
Key mitigations
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Risk Risk of critical asset failure, resulting in significant service disruption. |
Context Historic under-investment in Ireland’s water and wastewater networks and treatment facilities has resulted in Uisce Éireann operating with aged assets and infrastructure. Due to aging infrastructure, network vulnerability to severe weather events, supply chain challenges, and/ or people resourcing challenges. |
Key mitigations
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Risk Risk of a cyber-attack targeting systems impacting our infrastructure and delivery of services. |
Context A cyber-attack could compromise the integrity of data, disrupt normal operations, and pose a threat to the security of Ireland’s water supply. Such an incident would also have the potential to cause public health and safety issues, reputational damage, and/ or potential fines. |
Key mitigations
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Risk Risk of an externally driven shock, incident or event (e.g. extreme weather events, threat of global pandemic, increasing geopolitical volatility, inflation, supply chain disruption etc.), resulting in significant impact to Uisce Éireann’s assets and / or critical business delivery activities. |
Context Uisce Éireann may be impacted by shock events such as macro-economic impacts arising from global volatility, global pandemic, extreme weather events e.g. increased frequency of flood/ storm events, national security challenges. |
Key mitigations
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Financial | ||
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Risk Failure to secure required funding due to a shortfall in exchequer allocation or insufficient revenue control allowance determination impacting our infrastructure and delivery of services. |
Context Uisce Éireann’s capital and operational funding is approved by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) through a ‘Revenue Control’ process. The CRU are currently undertaking a determination of appropriate Operational and Capital allowances for the period 2025-2029. |
Key mitigations
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Customer, People, Stakeholder and Reputation | ||
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Risk Risk that Uisce Éireann will not have appropriate or sufficient resources/ capability, culture initiatives and strategic enablers in place impacting infrastructure and delivery of services. |
Context Uisce Éireann is undergoing organisational change until December 2026, having assumed direct responsibility for water services in 31 Local Authority areas. Alongside the transfer of operational services, Uisce Éireann continues to engage with Local Authority staff to join the organisation. Uisce Éireann operates in a competitive recruitment environment with high employment levels nationally and resourcing challenges in key areas of our business requiring specialist capabilities. Ensuring Uisce Éireann’s culture is effectively developed and maintained during a period of significant change is critical to enable the organisation’s success in the delivery of water services and will allow the retention and attraction of people, reducing the risk of organisational instability. |
Key mitigations
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Risk Risk of Uisce Éireann incurring reputational damage and/ or loss of trust where Uisce Éireann is unable to deliver on key stakeholder expectations due to the scale of investment required versus funding available, combined with increasing policy and regulatory requirements. |
Context Delivering for our customers and stakeholders and building trust, confidence and gaining their support is essential to enable Uisce Éireann to deliver water services and to achieve the organisation’s strategic objectives. |
Key mitigations
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Strategy, Compliance and Regulation and Legal | ||
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Risk A significant failure to comply with Drinking Water Regulations and to deliver clean, safe drinking water to required standards could lead to critical public health risk to consumers, prosecution, EU infringement or reputational impacts. |
Context While work continues across the aged asset infrastructure to improve quantity and quality of drinking water supply, there is a risk of quality issues materialising. Issues may arise due to severe weather events or delays to critical improvement works (due to operational challenges and external factors such as statutory or planning issues, legal challenges, and judicial reviews). |
Key mitigations
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Risk Failure to fully deliver all expected outcomes in the Uisce Éireann Transformation Programme impacting our infrastructure and delivery of services. |
Context Uisce Éireann now has direct responsibility for water services in all 31 Local Authority areas. The transfer of operational responsibility means Uisce Éireann is fully accountable for the delivery of Water Services in these local authority areas along with the necessary management and direction of all water services staff, including those who remain employed by the Local Authority, whilst also directly responsible for regulatory and legislative compliance. |
Key mitigations
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Environmental Sustainability | ||
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Risk Risk of failure to become a sustainable organisation and achieve sustainability objectives. |
Context Uisce Éireann is committed to delivering our business activities in a safe and sustainable manner and to support the improved sustainability of our water and wastewater services. |
Key mitigations
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