A legal challenge to the construction of a wastewater treatment plant near Kilkee Cliff Walk will be heard in the High Court in June.
To date, local residents have crowd funded over €74,000 to initiate a judicial review against the controversial plans.
Uisce Éireann’s plans to construct a new sewerage treatment plant and foul pumping station in Fooghagh, Kilkee were first lodged in January 2024.
Clare County Council ultimately refused the plans after receiving almost 90 formal objections, however this decision was later overturned by the then An Bord Pleanála, despite being recommended for refusal by the inspector appointed to the case.
Arguably the most contentious element of the plans, is the proposed structure’s proximity to Kilkee Cliff Walk.
Uisce Éireann says it’s 620 metres away, while a local campaign group claims its just one hundred metres.
Kilkee Resident Ellie Byrne says there’s serious concerns over the visual intrusion and potential for odours.
The Judicial Review will take place on June 17th and here a judge will assess if An Bord Pleanála erred in its review process, not the merits of the decision.
But one local resident, believes it did and that the seasonal population changes Uisce Éireann was working off for its application were far too low.
The utility has stated it wants to deliver a plant for the Kilkee 30-year summer design population equivalent of 7,926.
Joanne Dillon claims the proposed system is wholly inadequate due to its location and that Kilkee’s summer population regularly reaches 20,000.
Listen here:
Uisce Eireann Statement:
Uisce Éireann is currently seeking to develop a new pumping station and wastewater treatment plant for the town of Kilkee. Untreated wastewater from Kilkee is currently being discharged into the sea at Intrinsic Bay. Uisce Éireann intends to rectify this issue by delivering the proposed development which will bring a multitude of benefits, including:
Better health and integrity of the environment;
Improve the water quality at Intrinsic Bay; and
Ensure compliance with national and EU regulations relating to the treatment of wastewater.
Details of the development proposed can be found on Uisce Éireann’s website here, and full details of the development can be found in the planning application here. Permission for the development was granted by An Coimisiún Pleanála on 11 June 2025 and details of that decision can be found here. The decision of An Coimisiún Pleanála to grant permission for the development has been challenged by way of judicial review, under proceedings record number 2025 JR 1205. As the judicial review challenge remains before the Courts, Uisce Éireann is not in a position to comment on the proceedings.
Notwithstanding that position, however, Uisce Éireann has become aware of a GoFundMe page seeking to raise funds in respect of the Kilkee WWTP. The GoFundMe Page referred to contains a significant level of misinformation, inaccuracies and is factually incorrect. To correct that misinformation, Uisce Éireann notes as follows:
The GoFundMe Page asserts that “the plant will be only primary treatment of sewage, meaning that solid matter is filtered from the sewage and shipped to Limerick by truck and treated or incinerated” This is entirely incorrect. There is no proposal to take solid matter to Limerick and incinerate. Uisce Éireann does not operate a sludge incineration facility in Limerick. Uisce Éireann transports sludge from WWTPs to licenced facilities off-site which have the capacity to provide further treatment, and this will also be the standard procedure for Kilkee WWTP.
It is not correct to say that “raw untreated effluent” will be left over following primary treatment. Preliminary treatment in the form of screening and grit removal followed by primary treatment will result in highly treated effluent being discharged to the outfall at Intrinsic Bay. The Proposed Development will in fact ameliorate the current situation: at present unscreened untreated raw sewage is discharged to Intrinsic Bay from Kilkee town.
The outfall location is approx. 225m from the end of the cliff walk at Dunlicky Road, not 50m as asserted in the GoFundMe Page. Note that this outfall currently discharges unscreened untreated effluent to the sea and therefore the situation will be improved when the WWTP commences operations.
The WWTP site boundary is 174m south of Dunlicky Road, with the nearest proposed open tank 213m from the Dunlicky road, not 100m from the walk on Dunlicky Road as asserted on the GoFundMe Page.
The development is designed to ensure compliance with the European Union Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive. Again, the present position of discharging untreated effluent is in breach of European and Irish law, and the development will resolve this non-compliance. Therefore, it is not correct to say that “ Under the Waste Water Directive this plant does not meet the EU standards before it’s even built”.
It is not correct to say that if the plant has any electrical or pump failures it is designed to release sewage into Victoria Stream. In fact, the scheme is designed with four pumps (two duty and two standby) at the new foul pump station, a 951m3 storage tank and backup generator. The likelihood of failure of all of these elements at the same time, coupled with ESB power failure and the storage tank being full, is extremely low.
The virtual image of the proposed wastewater treatment plant, which appears on the GoFundMe Page, is inaccurate. Additionally, the scale of the image relative to the site in Kilkee is approximately ten times larger than the scale of the underlying aerial image, and is an entirely inaccurate representation of the scale of the WWTP.
The image appearing on the GoFundMe Page excludes fencing and landscaping which is proposed by Uisce Éireann as part of the planning application for the WWTP. The proposed landscaping at Kilkee WWTP must be implemented in accordance with Conditions 1 and 6 of the planning permission granted.
Notes:
There have been no odour complaints relating to odour from the newly constructed Kilrush WWTP in the period from early February 2024 (when it started operating) to date. Kilrush WWTP is a similar size and type to Kilkee WWTP.
It is anticipated that in summer in the 10 year design horizon two trucks per week will be required to remove sludge from the WWTP.
The Kilkee Cliff Walk along the cliff edge will not be closed at any time during the WWTP scheme construction works. There will be temporary traffic management along Dunlicky Road for construction of a new rising main with rolling road closures over a distance of approx. 850m of the Dunlicky Road. Access/egress for local residents will be facilitated as far as reasonably practical with emergency vehicles always given priority. Information will be distributed to properties in the area before any works take place on Dunlicky Road and warning signage will be placed to provide information to pedestrians on the road and along the cliff walk.
