Kildare-Newbridge Municipal District ‘needs a good liaison’ with Uisce Éireann

The Kildare-Newbridge Municipal District (MD) "needs a good liaison" with Uisce Éireann (UE).

That's according to Fianna Fáil councillor Suzanne Doyle, who made the suggestion to Kildare County Council (KCC) following a question which was submitted at the latest MD meeting on Wednesday, September 17 last.

Specifically, her comments were made after Fine Gael Cllr Tracey O'Dwyer asked KCC to "confirm the total amount paid to waste companies for the removal of sewage from Moorhill Wood Estate, Brannockstown, since the service commenced to date and confirm if this expenditure can be recouped from UE".

KCC issued a lengthy reply to Cllr O'Dwyer's query, which read as follows: "Moorhill Woods is a legacy estate where there is a requirement for capital investment / works to repair the Developer Provided Water Services Infrastructure (DPI) in advance of the estate being taken in charge by KCC.

"DPI is a category of housing estate served by standalone water services infrastructure, provided by the developer of the estate.

"There are over 450 of these estates nationally and to date they have not been taken-in-charge due to issues with the
water services infrastructure including, in general terms, the water services network not being connected to the public (UE) network or requiring remediation."

LEFT: Cllr Suzanne Doyle (Fianna Fáil), who made the suggestion about the liaison with Uisce Éireann. RIGHT: Cllr Tracey O'Dwyer (Fine Gael), who submitted the question to Kildare County Council at the latest Kildare-Newbridge Municipal District meeting

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KCC continued: "From January 1, 2024 however, UE, as the national water authority, has been assigned responsibility for the remediation of DPI infrastructure; this followed a government decision in late 2023.

"Since 2013, €117,000 has been paid for wastewater tankering services from Moorhill Woods."

KCC also said that it has "recouped significant expenditure incurred" relating to remedial works undertaken on water and wastewater infrastructure in Kildare estates, prior to them being Taken in Charge.

"However, in relation to Moorhill Woods, it is unclear as of yet whether the expenditure relating to the DPI can be recouped," KCC added.

Cllr O'Dwyer then asked KCC: "Can we request that the legacy estates team of UE to discuss this matter further?"

This prompted a representative for KCC who was present at the MD meeting to respond that KCC "would be keen to explore this with UE" and could issue Cllr O'Dwyer's suggested request to the organisation.

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