The regulator for utilities has imposed a €31 million penalty on Uisce Éireann for failing to meet performance targets.
The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) said on Wednesday the issues related to dealing with leaks and bad debts in the period between 2020 and 2024. It said the decision was final.
The CRU said the €31 million figure in Uisce Éireann’s 2025 financial statements, which were given to the Oireachtas several days ago, reflected a reduction it had made after reviewing the utility’s performance under a regulatory framework.
“The CRU established a number of performance targets and associated financial incentive mechanisms. Where specified targets were not achieved, the framework provides for a reduction in Uisce Éireann’s allowed revenues. This means that Uisce Éireann’s allowed revenues can be reduced if it fails to meet specified performance targets,” the regulator said.
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In the Dáil on Wednesday, Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly said at a time when the utilities regulator had imposed a €31 million fine on Uisce Éireann for underperformance, the water company had paid out €18 million in bonuses to its own personnel.
He asked Taoiseach Micheál Martin, “How can I explain to people in Kildare who are often without water that on the one hand the utility has had a €31 million fine imposed but at the same time has chosen to pay out 94 per cent of staff their full performance bonus to the tune of €18 million?”
The Taoiseach said in some areas Uisce Éireann was performing. However, he said in addition to leakages, the Environmental Protection Agency had also raised some criticism about the operation of wastewater plants.
Martin said overall Uisce Éireann was investing a lot and getting a lot done around water infrastructure. The Taoiseach suggested that those getting bonuses could be performing well in achieving objectives set within the company.
The CRU told The Irish Times that following a review of performance it had determined that a €20 million “downside adjustment” should be applied in relation to leakages. It said Uisce Éireann achieved a 59 megalitres per day leakage reduction against the target set in the regulatory framework of 177.5 megalitres per day.
“An €11 million downside adjustment was applied in accordance with the regulatory framework, due to Uisce Éireann’s performance against bad debt targets at less than 5 per cent of billed non-domestic revenue. Uisce Éireann is incentivised to actively manage non-domestic bad debt,” the CRU said.
Uisce Éireann said it operated within the revenue control framework established by the CRU. It said the framework included a number of incentive mechanisms, some of which could result in positive or negative adjustments to future allowed revenues depending on performance against agreed regulatory targets.
“Uisce Éireann remains committed to reducing leakage across Ireland’s water network. Leakage levels are now at their lowest ever recorded, with national leakage reducing from 49 per cent in 2014 to 35.1 per cent in 2025 and leakage in Dublin reducing from 37 per cent to 29.5 per cent over the same period. This is significant progress given the scale of our water network which, at 65,000km, is the largest per head of population in Europe,” it said.
