Although its future still remains unclear the much hated state utility Irish Water has claimed that it will take a massive investment of €13bn to address deficits in the country’s water infrastructure.
The latest call for funding comes after the utility submitted a report to the Commission for Energy Regulation, in which they outline its proposed investment plan, which states the enormous figure is the “minimum total capital requirement”.
In the detailed report which was revealed on RTE’s Prime Time programme, the company admitted that there “will not be sufficient funding available to deliver everything that is needed in the short term”. During the investigative report the programme found traces of human faeces on the water front in Rush, Co Dublin along with information that found the vast majority of the country’s waste supplies still being pumped out to sea.
The company say a solution is currently being considered to deal with the excessive pollution, but will not be made viable until 2020 at the earliest. Irish Water also highlighted that their previous estimates of 58,000kms damaged and unsuitable water mains was wrong, with them admitting the it is in fact 63,000kms of water mains that had to be upfgraded”.
The latest report to the CER also states that some activities have been deferred, such as full water sampling and upskilling local authority staff to help optimise the operation of treatment plants around the country.
The company say that further details of the report will be submitted to both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael when they resume talks later today.