Shannon water for Dublin

Saabsaab, at this stage you're either being deliberately obtuse or just trolling, because the idea that this is simply “water for Dubliners” has been addressed repeatedly and is contradicted by the actual project documentation.

This is not a Dublin pipeline, it is a national resilience project for the Eastern and Midlands region, covering multiple counties and communities, and crucially freeing up water elsewhere.

Straight from Uisce Éireann — Water Supply Project, Eastern and Midlands Region:

“It will provide the greater area of Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow with a resilient safe secure water and will have capacity to serve communities in Tipperary, Offaly and Westmeath along the route. It will support balanced regional development by redirecting supplies currently serving Dublin to Louth, Meath, Wicklow, Carlow and Kildare, providing regional development opportunities.”

So immediately, this is not just Dublin. Beneficiaries include Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Wicklow directly, with communities in Tipperary, Offaly and Westmeath along the route also benefiting, and water freed up and redirected to Louth, Carlow, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow. That is a large portion of the country, and it goes further. The same publication states:

“The project will have the capacity to address water supply need across 36 water resource zones… ensuring a sustainable supply… for up to 50% of the State's population.”

Up to 50 percent of the population. And the idea that the water is being “taken” for Dublin ignores how interconnected infrastructure works. The project explicitly creates what they describe as a water supply spine across the country, with future offtakes for communities along the route

“It will, for the first time, create a water supply ‘spine’ across the country with the capacity for future offtakes to supply communities along the route in Tipperary, Offaly and Westmeath.”

So it strengthens midlands towns, allows housing growth outside Dublin, supports industry outside Dublin, improves resilience across multiple counties, and reduces dependence on a single vulnerable source.

Which brings us to another important point. Right now:

“Currently a single source, the River Liffey, supplies 85% of the water requirements for 1.7 million people in the Greater Dublin Area.”

That is dangerously fragile infrastructure. If that fails, it is not just Dublin affected, it is hospitals, universities, ports, airports, government services, national businesses, and economic activity that serves the entire country.

The capital failing is not a Dublin problem, it is a national problem.

And then there is the population point, which often gets ignored.

Dublin is not some separate tribe, it is full of people from Donegal, Mayo, Kerry, Clare, Cork, Galway, Waterford, Limerick, Tipperary, Monaghan, Tyrone, and every other county, along with people from Poland, Brazil, India, Nigeria, Spain, France, the UK, Romania, Lithuania and dozens more.

These are not “Dubliners” in the narrow sense, they are people from all over Ireland and the world who chose to live and work in the capital, who contribute to the national economy, whose work supports businesses and services across the entire country. So when you say “water for Dubliners” you are really talking about water for half the country's workforce, water for national infrastructure, water for economic growth, water for redistribution to other counties.

The same Uisce Éireann Water Supply Project, Eastern and Midlands Region publication describes it as:

“A critical infrastructure project that will transform the resilience and security of water supply for the Region… necessary for the State’s social and economic growth now and for generations to come.”

It is also worth remembering that only about 2 percent of the average flow of the Shannon is proposed to be abstracted, from the largest river in the country, while delivering resilience across 36 water zones, supporting housing, industry, and population growth across the Eastern and Midlands region.

And finally, the cost benefit analysis shows:

“For every €1 spent, €12.25 of benefits are delivered.”

Which again underlines that this is a national infrastructure investment, not a local perk. So at this point, saying this is just for Dublin is not really a serious argument anymore. It ignores the geography, the redistribution, the resilience, the population, the economics, and the actual published plan.

If you are seriously starting from a position of dismissing all submissions as unreasonable/uneducated I'm not sure that I know where to start or if it's worth bothering.

You're just continuing to stand over your original claim that all the submissions are uneducated/unreasonable.

Tell me, what's to discuss ?