Housing Growth At Risk As Wastewater System Exceeds Capacity

Thursday, 18 September 2025 14:47

By Martin Osborne

Without upgrades, the utility warns new housing connections in Kildare, Dublin, Meath, and Wicklow could be frozen by 2028.

Uisce Éireann is calling for improvements in planning and consent to prevent a looming wastewater crisis that could stall housing projects in Kildare and the Greater Dublin Area.

The Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Plant is already running at three times its original design capacity, while blockages from grease and baby wipes choke the city’s 150-year-old Victorian sewers.

Without upgrades, the utility warns new housing connections in Kildare, Dublin, Meath, and Wicklow could be frozen by 2028.

The new Greater Dublin Drainage Project facility is expected to be built on a 30-acre site at Clonshaugh.

The project was first submitted in 2018.

The scheme is not due to be operational by 2032.

Uisce Éireann has warned that, without urgent upgrades, the wastewater system could hit breaking point as early as 2028.

Beyond that date, the utility may have to cap new housing connections.

It says such limits would seriously undermine the Government’s goal of delivering 150,000 additional homes in the Greater Dublin Area by 2030.

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