Farmers and landowners are to benefit from an average payout of €100,000 each after reaching a deal on land access for the development of a new Shannon water pipeline.
Ireland’s main farming organisations announced the agreement with Uisce Éireann on a voluntary land and financial “wayleave package” on Wednesday.
It is to compensate those affected along the route of the proposed pipeline from the river Shannon to the Greater Dublin Area.
It is understood the overall value of the package is in the region of €42 million, meaning the 500 farmers and landowners affected stand to bank average windfalls of about €100,000. This includes the value of the package, which is €218.25 per linear metre.
RM Block
The agreement reached with the Irish Farmers Assocation (IFA) and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) is expected to greatly reduce the likelihood of objections to the 170km (105-mile) pipeline.
Known as the Water Supply Project Eastern and Midlands Region, the infrastructure has a current cost estimate, excluding contingency allowances, of just over €3 billion.
However, the Department of Housing warned the Public Accounts Committee earlier this year that it could exceed €10 billion in a worst-case risk scenario.
It is expected to clear planning by 2027.
The deal for potentially more than 500 farmers and landowners includes an early sign-on payment, a “wayleave” payment, a crop loss and disturbance payment and a special goodwill payment.
There are additional payments for those who will have ancillary elements on their land, such as valves, wash-out chambers and lay-bys. It will be up to individual landowners to sign up for payments.
During negotiations, the IFA and ICMSA expressed concern over implications for farmers if there were long delays to the planning or with the pipeline being completed. The package provides for inflation and consumer price indexation for goodwill payments after 2030.
The water is due to be extracted at Parteen Basin in Co Tipperary and treated at a plant in nearby Birdhill, before being piped to Peamount in Co Dublin – while also supplying towns in the midlands.
Campaign groups in Co Tipperary oppose the project, claiming it will damage thousands of hectares of agricultural land and have a negative ecological impact on the Shannon.
The Greater Dublin Area (GDA) is facing increasing water supply issues due to urban expansion and industrial development, along with overreliance on the river Liffey and a high level of leakage in the capital’s supply system.
The agreement marks a significant milestone in advance of submitting a planning application to An Coimisiún Pleanála, said Uisce Éireann. It will enable “acquisition of the necessary rights to lay, operate and maintain the pipeline infrastructure, in advance of a strategic infrastructure development planning application later this year”.
[ Shannon pipeline not needed if Dublin water leaks fixed, study claimsOpens in new window ]
Its programme director Mike Healy added: “The need is clear – water supply in the eastern and midlands region currently faces major challenges, notably the overreliance on the river Liffey to supply 1.7 million people in the GDA.”
Forecasts show the region will need 34 per cent more water by 2044, he said, making the combination of a growing supply deficit and lack of supply resilience “simply not sustainable”.
While farmers along the route will ultimately have a 20m (65ft) wide wayleave corridor on their land, a 50m (164ft) wide corridor will be required during construction. From pre-planning until the project is complete, the latter will be subject to “development restrictions”. However, outside of the construction period, normal agricultural use of the corridor will not be affected.
Considering significant delays in completing major State infrastructure projects, there was a real concern that farmers could be left in limbo for a long time, their representative bodies said in a statement on Wednesday.
The issue of protecting farmers from potential significant delays with planning or construction remained unresolved, they added. “However, the IFA and ICMSA will continue to work with Uisce Éireann for the duration of this project... to protect the interests of farmers if this project is unduly delayed.”
