{"id":100682,"date":"2025-05-14T11:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T11:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/100682\/"},"modified":"2025-05-14T11:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T11:44:10","slug":"how-vital-water-project-stalled-for-years-over-minor-paperwork-issue-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/100682\/","title":{"rendered":"How vital water project stalled for years over minor paperwork issue \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not for the first time, creaking water systems are being blamed for hindering new homes. <\/p>\n

This is part of a wider picture of delay, disarray and litigation which has hobbled the delivery of infrastructure needed to keep pace with rapid population and economic growth.<\/p>\n

Dublin City Council (DCC) plans 6,000 homes in a new suburb on former industrial land near Glasnevin Cemetery. This would be Dublin\u2019s largest urban regeneration project since the docklands revival began in the 1980s. The plan is, however, threatened by water and sewerage constraints<\/a>. \u201cWater supply in the Greater Dublin Area is on a knife edge,\u201d said Uisce \u00c9ireann<\/a>, citing long planning delays to proposals for big sewerage works. <\/p>\n

An Bord Plean\u00e1la granted permission in 2019 for the Greater Dublin Drainage (GDD) project. The High Court quashed the permission in 2020 after a challenge taken by a daily sea swimmer, who had concerns about the potential impact on water quality and environment.<\/p>\n

Mr Justice Allen dismissed \u201cheadline-grabbing\u201d claims that permission was granted without consideration of what would come through the wastewater pipe, saying that was \u201csimply and obviously incorrect\u201d. But he still struck down the permission, finding it \u201clegally flawed\u201d because planners failed to seek certain Environmental Protection Agency observations. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Uisce \u00c9ireann\u2019s \u20ac1bn budget funding \u2018not additional\u2019 and \u2018contradicts\u2019 impression given to publicOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The matter went back to An Bord Plean\u00e1la. A consultation on further Uisce \u00c9ireann information closed 11 months ago, but it still awaits clarity on a timeline for planners\u2019 eventual decision. Meanwhile, the wait for housing goes on.<\/p>\n

The stalled GDD project is one of several Uisce \u00c9ireann plans subject to litigation in what by now is a familiar story of infrastructure held back by court action and other barriers.<\/p>\n

Uisce \u00c9ireann is party to four live judicial review cases in the High Court, involving disputed permission for water infrastructure. This is in addition to judicial review cases challenging housing, where the water body is a party in the case. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn our experience, judicial reviews spend between 12-24 months in the court system, with varying impact on the timelines for delivery of projects depending on the outcome of the case,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n

The infrastructure gap doesn\u2019t stop there. Builders recently warned \u201cthousands\u201d of new homes were stalled because of problems gaining access to electricity in parts of Dublin\u2019s commuter belt and Cork. ESB Networks has cited \u201csignificant additional demands\u201d on its network, and longer lead-in times for procuring equipment in international markets. <\/p>\n

Such delays come even though electricity infrastructure plans from national grid operator EirGrid are not in litigation: \u201cCurrently, no EirGrid infrastructure projects are the subject of judicial review proceedings before the courts, or planning appeals before an Bord Plean\u00e1la.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is more. After Four Courts proceedings over the disputed Dublin Airport passenger cap, the question could be determined by European Union judges in Luxembourg. Similarly, a years-long row over the Ardee bypass in Co Louth is before the Supreme Court but may yet be subject to European rulings. The Ardee proposal, in planning for many years, is just one contentious road project among many. <\/p>\n

In an economy under pressure from Donald Trump\u2019s trade war, all of this adds to concern about Ireland\u2019s ability to attract foreign direct investment. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe planning and regulatory environment is a barrier to investment,\u201d said an October report on infrastructure from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, the budget watchdog. Conditions have not improved since. \u201cThe planning and objection system has made it harder to deliver infrastructure projects and has increased their costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

How serious is the effort to get to grips with such problems? Tom Phillips, a planning consultant, points to 83 Housing Commission recommendations issued last year, several of them on infrastructure. However, a review found 65 of the 83 were already \u201cimplemented, under way or partially under way\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat range of \u2018partially under way to implemented\u2019 covers a multitude of sins,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cIt is a Jesuitical argument. We need to be much more overt and look at these recommendations to see the degree to which they are actually under way as opposed to aspirational.\u201d<\/p>\n

To break the logjam, Phillips suggests new \u201cinfrastructure priority zones\u201d with fast-track planning to match defined forms of infrastructure required to service zoned housing land. Applications would go direct to An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la \u2013 the new name for An Bord Plean\u00e1la \u2013 but with no right of appeal. \u201cThere\u2019s an imbalance between the common good and the rights of the individual to object, which can be genuine or unfounded,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Sinn F\u00e9in accuses Government of misleading public over \u2018additional\u2019 Uisce \u00c9ireann fundingOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

To say the least, this is sensitive. In the last coalition government, a push to curtail rights to challenge planning in the courts prompted resistance from the Greens. <\/p>\n

Despite frustration at long delays, officials cite reluctance to do \u201cviolence to democratic legitimacy\u201d in planning.<\/p>\n

One potential change is to revive a recommendation in 2020 from a civil law review group chaired by former High Court president Peter Kelly. <\/p>\n

The group suggested a law to block judicial reviews arising from alleged \u201cclerical or typographical\u201d errors or \u201cunintentional slips or omissions\u201d, unless applicants showed they were wrongly refused \u201crectification of the deficiency\u201d earlier. The group did not suggest invoking such measures in the public interest, but it did stir discussion. <\/p>\n

Uisce \u00c9ireann said it takes five to seven years to get through all consents for \u201cstraightforward\u201d water projects. More complex projects can take up to 10 years and \u201cvery complex projects\u201d can take more than 10 years. As the housing crisis worsens, this is a problem. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not for the first time, creaking water systems are being blamed for hindering new homes. This is part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3843],"tags":[46765,728,46764,70,16,15],"class_list":["post-100682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-cyril-byrne","tag-environment","tag-mam","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114506017642657018","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}