Wastewater Project For Greater Dublin Area Set To Enable Construction Of 185,000 Homes

Monday, 27 July 2026 11:18

By Daniel Maher

The project is expected to cost €2billion

Plans for a new wastewater plant in the Greater Dublin Area will enable the construction of 185,000 new homes to cater for 500,000 people.

The project is expected to cost €2billion, aimed at taking the pressure off the current system in Dublin.

It was one of the projects outlined as part of the new Critical Infrastructure Act, with nine key projects to be fast-tracked under new legislation.

Speaking on Kildare Today, Fine Gael and Kildare North TD Joe Neville outlined the plans for the Greater Dublin Drainage Scheme:

"It'll take the pressure off the waterway system that's based around Dublin."

"This will allow us to get the water up from the [River] Shannon and feed off the water from there, as many listeners know, a huge amount of drinking water from the Liffey is used in the north Kildare and Dublin region. It's been spoken about since the foundation of the State."

Deputy Neville also said that elements of climate legislation had been "weaponised" before the fast-track legislation was brought in:

"Some of the climate legislation that has been put in recently was essentially being weaponised to a degree, planning was getting delayed, what this means is more spurious elements of planning projections can't happen in the same way.

We're hoping it will reduce objections and the capability for certain people to object to things of a spurious nature, which will speed up the work to be done and ensure the costs won't escalate to a degree that it might otherwise have."

The full interview can be heard below: