O’Driscoll welcomes €2.6 million upgrade to Cherrywood water network

Fine Gael Councillor Eoin O’Driscoll has welcomed a €2.6 million upgrade to the Cherrywood water network by Uisce Éireann, describing it as an “important step” towards delivering much-needed homes across Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.

The €2.6m project involves upgrading approximately 220 metres of water mains along the south side of Cherrywood Business Park and Brides Glen Road. 

Welcoming the announcement, O’Driscoll emphasised that providing homes for the next generation must go hand-in-hand with delivering the infrastructure needed to support them.

“Every new home in Cherrywood is an opportunity for a young person, a growing family or someone who wants to put down roots in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. Building communities requires more than just building new homes but also ensuring we deliver required infrastructure,” the Fine Gael councillor said.

The Stillorgan councillor said “this €2.6 million investment is a great example of how targeted infrastructure investment can support housing delivery. Homes are the foundation of any community, but it takes water, wastewater networks, schools, open spaces and public transport to turn housing developments into thriving, connected places to live.”

“The fact that a relatively targeted 220-metre network upgrade can support a development programme of approximately 3,300 homes shows the value of proactive infrastructure planning. To keep this positive momentum going, we need the same urgency applied to water and wastewater capacity across the rest of the county, particularly where infrastructure constraints are holding back housing delivery,” he said.

O’Driscoll said that infrastructure investment should not, however, be focused solely on supporting new development, and that the needs of established communities must also be addressed.

“This is an issue I have raised previously in relation to wastewater infrastructure in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, because the lesson from Cherrywood is clear: if we know where growth is planned, we should be planning the infrastructure required to support it at the same time.”

“But we also need to make sure that infrastructure investment benefits the communities that are already here. There are existing communities across the county where shortages in infrastructure — particularly in wastewater networks and public transport — have already been identified,” he said.

He added, “it would be a mistake to concentrate infrastructure investment only where it unlocks new development. We need to invest both in the infrastructure that allows us to build the homes we need and in the infrastructure that allows existing communities to function properly.”

“By identifying water and wastewater constraints early, Uisce Éireann and the Council can plan the necessary engineering works before they become barriers to housing delivery. That means getting infrastructure investment ahead of development, rather than trying to catch up afterwards.”