Watch Back: Rural Water Services Conference 2024

The Rural Water Services Conference 2024 took place on Thursday, 12 September in the Hodson Bay Hotel, Athlone, County Roscommon. This year's conference theme, ‘Strategies for a Resilient Rural Water Sector’, focused on themes of setting future priorities, planning and managing changes in rural water sector. A range of experts spoke on key areas, including the Multi-annual Rural Water Programme 2024 - 2026, Source Protection, River Basin Management Planning and to end the day the large audience heard from speakers talking about their own experiences, successes and challenges in the GWS sector.

You can download a copy of the conference programme here.

Each presentation can be watched back below and on our YouTube channel:

Session one: Priorities for the Rural Water Sector

Malcolm Noonan TD - Minister of State at the Dept of Housing, Local Government & Heritage (DHLGH) — Opening Ministerial Address

Fintan Towey - Assistant Secretary (DHLGH)Rural Water Working Group Priorities

Mike Sheil - Senior Executive Engineer, Galway County Council  — Managing Rural Water, A Local Authority Perspective

Mark Farrelly - Chief Executive Officer, NFGWS — NFGWS Strategic Plan 2025-2030

Session two: River Basin Management Planning and the GWS Sector

Dónal Cronin - Policy Adviser DHLGH — River Basin Management Plan: Water Action Plan 2024

Róisín Dowd Smith - Catchment Scientist, NFGWS — Integrated Source Protection Planning: A Win-Win for Rural Water

Mairead Whitty - Project Lead for the Water European Innovation Partnership — Introducing the Farming for Water EIP

Session three: Managing GWS Operations

Ross MacDonald - Source Protection Officer, Stranooden GWS — Catchment Solutions

Fionnuala Foy - Manager, Glencorrib GWS - Managing Relationships on a GWS

Gail Fitzgerald - Manager, Ballinabranna GWS - Network Management

 

Seamus Murphy - Chairperson of Kilkenny West GWS - Governance

 Dr John Gallagher -  Assistant Professor in Trinity College Dublin - TRACE Project