The voluntary agreement was announced by Uisce Éireann, together with the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA). Under the deal, roughly 500 farmers and landowners affected by the route of the new “Water Supply Project Eastern and Midlands Region” will be part of a wayleave and compensation package worth in total about €42 million. The payment rate is set at €218.25 per linear metreof land affected.
The package includes several different types of payments: an early “sign-on” payment, a wayleave payment, crop loss and disturbance payments, and a special goodwill payment. Additional sums will be paid to those whose land hosts ancillary infrastructure such as valves, wash-out chambers or lay-bys.
Farmers have been given until October 7 to return consent forms accepting the package — this is an extension from the original deadline of September 23.
A number of concerns raised during negotiations will be addressed: the deal includes provisions for indexing certain payments (like goodwill and crop loss) to the Consumer Price Index, in case there are delays. There are also measures for covering legal costs for landowners obtaining independent advice, and protections for farmers in terms of agricultural use of the land after construction is complete.
The pipeline will draw water from the Parteen Basin in Co Tipperary, treat it at a plant in Birdhill, and pipe it some 170km to Peamount in Co Dublin, supplying the Greater Dublin Area and midlands towns along the way. Construction will require a corridor of 50 metres width during building, which will later reduce to 20 metres once the pipeline is operational. Outside construction, normal farming use of the land under the wayleave corridor will continue.
The overall cost estimate of the pipeline project (excluding certain contingency allowances) is over €3 billion, though in worst-case scenarios it could rise to over €10 billion. Planning is expected to be cleared by 2027.
While many farmers are welcoming the compensation agreement, some environmental and land-use groups express concerns about the ecological impacts, loss of land, and the potential for delay in project rollout. Still, this agreement is seen as a significant step toward getting the project over a major hurdle.
