Irish Water extends deadline for consultation on controversial Lough Derg pipeline

Irish Water has extended the statutory consultation period of the draft Regional Water Resource Plan Eastern and Midlands (RWRP-EM) and associated SEA Environmental Report and Natura Impact Statement (NIS).

The plan would see Irish Water extract 330 million litres of water a day from below Lough Derg at Parteen and pump it 175km to a new plant outside Dublin at a cost of €1.2bn.

The plan has been met with stiff local opposition for politicians and landowners in Tipperary and its relevance was questioned this month by local TD and former Labour Party leader Alan Kelly.

Irish Water is inviting feedback on the plan and associated environmental documents, which was published for statutory consultation on in December, until Friday, March 25.

The RWRP-EM is Irish Water’s plan to identify how they will provide a safe, sustainable, secure and reliable water supply to its customers for now and into the future whilst safeguarding the environment.

The RWRP-EM will set out how we will balance the supply and demand for drinking water over the short, medium and long term in the Eastern and Midlands. It is a 25-year strategy to ensure Irish Water has a safe, sustainable, secure and reliable drinking water supply for everyone.  

Irish Water said that the consultation was an opportunity to feed into the process of how Irish Water identified the issues and opportunities for the water supply in your area and how solutions were found, before they were applied to your region.

The draft RWRP-EM and associated environmental reports can be viewed and downloaded at www.water.ie/rwrp/ easternmidlands, or at your local authority’s planning office during office hours. 

If you have any questions in relation to the RWRP-EM, you can contact the Irish Water project team at [email protected]