{"id":536305,"date":"2026-07-06T20:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T20:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/536305\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T20:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T20:22:11","slug":"decision-delayed-on-shannon-water-extraction-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/536305\/","title":{"rendered":"Decision delayed on Shannon water extraction project"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la (ACP) has put back making a decision for up to one year on Uisce \u00c9ireann\u2019s contentious plans to extract over 300 million litres of water a day from the River Shannon, to boost supply to the east of the country.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Proposed Water Supply Project for the Eastern and Midlands Region’ is the largest ever water project in Irish history.<\/p>\n

ACP was due to make a decision on Uisce \u00c9ireann’s Strategic Infrastructure Development (SID) application on July 2nd but has written to all parties to say that \u201cthe Commission now intends to determine this application before July 2nd 2027\u201d.<\/p>\n

The letter states that the Commission \u201cwill take all such steps as are open to it to ensure that the matter is determined before that date\u201d.<\/p>\n

Uisce \u00c9ireann lodged the plans last December, and the ACP letter states that the statutory objective is to determine such a case within 18 weeks of the application being lodged.<\/p>\n

The commission has told parties that \u201cit will not be possible to determine the case within the statutory objective period due to the need for further consideration of the case\u201d.<\/p>\n

The project’s estimated cost is between \u20ac4.6 billion to \u20ac5.9 billion and the SID application is for permission to begin constructing the major water project that will pipe drinking water from the River Shannon at the Parteen Basin below Lough Derg onto the Midlands, Eastern, and Greater Dublin area.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach, Miche\u00e1l Martin, described the plan as “an imperative\u201d when plans were lodged last December.<\/p>\n

A total of 114 submissions have been lodged with ACP on the proposals and in an objection, the River Shannon Environmental Protection Alliance has told ACP that the \u201cEastern and Midlands Pipeline Project represents a high-risk, high-cost, and environmentally unsound approach to water supply\u201d.<\/p>\n

The alliance claimed that the proposal \u201cfails to meet the requirements of EU environmental law, national climate policy, and fundamental principles of sustainable water management\u201d.<\/p>\n

Independent TD Mattie McGrath has told ACP that \u201cthe project represents an outdated, high-risk engineering solution that fails to protect the Shannon…and fails to deliver a resilient long-term water strategy for Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a submission, industry representative body, Ibec has strongly urged ACP \u201cto approve the application and enable the timely delivery of this essential strategic project\u201d while Chambers Ireland states that \u201cthe project will help alleviate concerns regarding security of supply for both businesses and homes in a region covering a vast area of the State\u201d.<\/p>\n

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A spokeswoman for Uisce \u00c9ireann said today that \u201cthe Water Supply Project Eastern & Midlands Region is a critical infrastructure project that will provide a resilient, safe, and secure water supply with capacity to address the water supply needs for up to 50% of the population. It is critical to the delivery of Housing and Growth for the State\u201d.<\/p>\n

The spokeswoman said that \u201cUisce \u00c9ireann is aware of the recent communication issued by An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cGiven the critical and urgent need for the project, we are working with Government to maintain the current delivery timelines, including the new water source entering into supply in 2032.<\/p>\n

She said that \u201cwe are committed to ensuring efficient delivery of the project and adapting our current programme to ensure delivery timelines are not impacted, pending the relevant statutory approvals. We welcome An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la\u2019s efforts to determine the application as soon as possible for a project of this scale.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la (ACP) has put back making a decision for up to one year on Uisce \u00c9ireann\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-536305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}