Dublin is running out of water. Not in the dramatic, taps-running-dry sense, not yet, but the margins are thin enough that planners, engineers and economists are sounding the alarm. The Greater Dublin Area’s water supply is operating at or near full capacity, and demand is only going one way.
“There is already a deficit in supplies in the Greater Dublin Area and the wider Eastern and Midlands Region and this will only increase in the future,” says Mairead Conlon, Uisce Éireann’s asset strategy senior manager.
The solution, according to Uisce Éireann, lies 170 kilometres away in the river Shannon.
The Water Supply Project (WSP) Eastern and Midlands Region aims to futureproof water supply by developing a new source capable of meeting the domestic, commercial and industrial needs of up to 50 per cent of Ireland’s population.
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The proposed abstraction scheme would pipe treated water from Tipperary to south Dublin, supplying up to 300 million litres a day and securing the region’s water needs through to 2050 and beyond.
The WSP proposes to abstract up to 2 per cent of the long-term average flow from the lower river Shannon at Parteen Basin, downstream of Lough Derg. Water would be treated at a new plant at Birdhill, then flow through a 170km pipeline through Tipperary, Offaly and Kildare to a reservoir in Peamount, south Dublin. Beyond serving Dublin, the project would create a strategic water supply spine across the country, with capacity for future offtakes to communities along the route and enabling Uisce Éireann to reassign existing capacity to growing areas in Wicklow, Laois, Carlow, Meath and Louth.
The project would also reduce Dublin’s dependence on the river Liffey, which currently provides 85 per cent of the Greater Dublin Area’s water supply, a single-source dependency that leaves the region acutely exposed to drought or contamination events, Conlon says.
But the project is years from delivery, planning hurdles remain, and the pressure on existing infrastructure is mounting now.
What happens in the meantime? Can the scheme be accelerated? And what is at stake if it isn’t, for housing, for foreign investment, and for the quarter of a million homes Ireland says it needs to build?
With supply stretched to its limits, Uisce Éireann is maintaining day-to-day service through pressure management, storage optimisation and conservation measures, but as Conlon acknowledges, these are not sustainable long-term practices.
The national leakage rate has fallen to 36 per cent, according to Uisce Éireann, which has set a target of 20 per cent for the Greater Dublin Area by 2030. However, Uisce Éireann was fined €20 million by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities in November 2025 for missing its leakage reduction target, having saved only 90 million litres against a required 176 million litres between 2020 and 2024.
Matthew King, managing director and co-head of infrastructure at KPMG in Ireland agrees that more needs to be done on leakage and says it should be prioritised ahead of other major capital investments such as desalination. But he stops short of arguing it removes the need for new supply.
Uisce Éireann maintains that even with significant leakage reductions, projected demand means a new strategic source is still required.
The scale of committed public investment is significant, reflected in the National Development Plan alongside specific frameworks such as Revenue Control 4 for water and Price Review 6 for the electricity network. King points to the Government’s Accelerating Infrastructure Taskforce and recent legislation as positive signals “which will hopefully accelerate project delivery.”
He also argues that Ireland should look beyond purely public funding models. “International best practice points to the value of deploying a range of funding and delivery models. Approaches such as the Thames Tideway Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model and blended public-private structures like Sizewell C demonstrate how private capital can be aligned with public objectives.”
These models do not just bring additional funding capacity, but also introduce specialist skills, delivery capability, and innovation that can be difficult to sustain for public-sector teams under constraints, King says.
Water services infrastructure across the Greater Dublin Area and the wider Eastern and Midlands Region are under significant pressure, with demand now at record levels. Conlon is direct about the consequences: while Uisce Éireann will continue to facilitate housing connections as far as existing networks permit, long-term sustainable delivery of new homes will require timely investment in the WSP and the Greater Dublin Drainage scheme for wastewater. “These projects are essential to provide the additional headroom needed to support national housing targets and future economic growth.”
King agrees that planning challenges and labour availability affect water infrastructure and housing delivery in tandem, making the two inextricably linked. He is cautiously optimistic that the response is credible, noting a shift in Government approach: “The move to an infrastructure-orientated development approach (water, energy, transport) to help unlock housing is a significant change from even five years ago, when the focus was really just on housing alone.”
The shift is already visible in the property market. “We are certainly seeing a move away from zoned lands to serviceable lands,” King says.
There is concern that water shortage risks could deter foreign direct investment (FDI). Ireland hosts the European headquarters of some of the world’s largest technology and pharmaceutical companies, many of which are significant water users. Ireland’s large and growing data centre sector, which has expanded rapidly in the Dublin region over the past decade, adds further pressure to both energy and water infrastructure.
King acknowledges that previous studies have identified a connection between water supply and FDI, but points to ongoing infrastructure improvements and recent Government reforms, including the Critical Infrastructure Bill, as evidence that the challenge is being taken seriously. Whether that confidence is shared by multinational decision-makers weighing up data centre and pharmaceutical investment locations remains an open question.
Uisce Éireann submitted its planning application to An Coimisiún Pleanála on 19 December 2025, with a seven-week public consultation beginning in January 2026. Subject to approval, construction is expected to begin in 2028 and take approximately five years, putting first water delivery at around 2033 at the earliest. Climate change compounds the urgency. Extreme weather events are expected to become more frequent, driving peaks in demand that existing infrastructure cannot absorb, Conlon warns.
“By 2044, it is estimated that 34 per cent more water will be needed than is currently available,” Conlon says. “Delays to this project will have serious consequences for the delivery of housing, economic growth and development.”
Uisce Éireann’s own preliminary business case estimates the project at approximately €4 billion, with a worst-case scenario of approximately €10 billion. King puts the stakes plainly: “The opportunities lost should the project be delayed would be very significant.”
The infrastructure, the funding frameworks and the political will appear to be moving in the right direction. The planning application is in. The question now is whether it moves through the system fast enough to close the gap before the taps run dry.
