Ireland Approves €1.3 Billion Clonshaugh Sewage Plant to Unblock Housing Growth

Ireland’s planning appeals body, An Coimisiún Pleanála, has approved Uisce Éireann’s €1.3 billion Greater Dublin Drainage Project, clearing the way for a new regional wastewater treatment plant at Clonshaugh near Dublin Airport. The facility is designed to serve about 500,000 people across north Dublin as well as parts of Meath and Kildare. The scheme includes a 30-acre treatment plant, an underground orbital sewer running from Blanchardstown to Clonshaugh, and a 6-kilometre marine outfall pipeline from Baldoyle into the Irish Sea. Construction is expected to take up to four years once statutory consents are in place, with the plant targeted to be operational by 2032. The decision ends a seven-year planning process that saw earlier approval overturned in the courts, doubling the project’s estimated cost since 2018. Uisce Éireann says the new capacity is critical because the existing Ringsend facility has reached its limit, threatening future housing and economic development. Objectors still have an eight-week window to seek a further judicial review.