Irish Water has been urged not to use the current dry weather as an excuse to “force a pipeline across Irish farmland” by the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA).

Leading the calls, the organisation’s Rural Development chairman – Seamus Sherlock – highlighted the faults in the current pipelines around the country, pushing for infrastructure repair to be priorities.

Sherlock was referring to the controversial Shannon Pipeline Project – which aims to pipe water from the River Shannon to a reservoir in south Co. Dublin.

The project will involve the abstraction of water from the lower River Shannon at Parteen Basin in Co. Tipperary, with water treatment nearby at Birdhill.

Treated water would then be piped 170km to a termination point reservoir at Peamount in Co. Dublin; this would then connect into the greater Dublin network.

“Water restrictions are in place because of leaks in the current infrastructure,” he said.

There is no justification for anything other than fixing those leaks and certainly no valid case for jeopardising the livelihoods of the estimated 500 farmers along the proposed route.

“It makes sense to fix the current problems with the pipe network and then reassess the situation.

“Only then will we have certainty around future water requirements and alternatives to building a cross country pipeline costing over €1 billion can be considered.

What makes no sense is to pipe water half-way across the country for it to leak back into the groundwater through faulty pipes.

Dublin ‘on a knife edge’

However, Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Eoghan Murphy last week said that the Shannon project “absolutely has to happen“.

Speaking about the project on RTE Radio 1’s Drivetime show last Wednesday (July 11), Minister Murphy said: “It has to happen; it is absolutely essential – for not just Dublin, but the counties surrounding Dublin as well – that another source of water is found.

Because, as you have been hearing, Dublin exists on a knife edge; Dublin is only going to grow in terms of population, as are the counties around it – so it needs another water supply and the Shannon water supply is the best way to do that.

“I am aware of the concerns that people have for different reasons – be it in relation to fisheries, be it in relation to the impact it might have on the River Shannon itself or the implications for landowners as well,” he said.