Uisce Éireann marks Engineers Week with visit to St Nathy’s College

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Representatives from Uisce Éireann paid a visit to St Nathy’s College in Ballaghaderreen on Thursday morning last (6 March) to speak to students about the water treatment process and the varied career paths available to engineering and STEM graduates in the water services sector.

The visit was held to mark Engineers Week 2025, which ran from March 1st to 7th, and the Uisce Éireann team were delighted to have the opportunity to present to Leaving Cert engineering students in the Ballaghaderreen college.

Among the topics covered over the course of the 90-minute session included the drinking water abstraction process, the need to make water compliant with regulations, the treatment process itself and the vital role that engineers play in the planning, design and construction of key components of Uisce Éireann’s national infrastructure.

Uisce Éireann were represented on the day by Marie Finneran, a Drinking Water Compliance Technical Lead based in Roscommon; Ronan McDonnell, an Asset Operations Technical Lead based in Castlebar; and Mark Higgins, a Communications Advisor in the north-west region and a past pupil of St Nathy's.

Marie spoke to the students about the treatment required to make raw water safe and compliant for domestic use, and the various treatment processes to which water must be subjected before it reaches taps in our homes and businesses. Marie revealed that Uisce Éireann is responsible for the maintenance of over 65,000km of underground drinking water network nationally – over twelve times the length of the country’s combined motorway, national and regional road network.

Marie spoke about her career as a technician with both Roscommon County Council and Uisce Éireann and advised students to take advantage of any opportunities to gain work experience, to find the area that interests them most.

Ronan then spoke about his own background in engineering and how he came to work in Asset Operations with Uisce Éireann. He explained that following a career path in engineering would allow the students to work across a wide variety of fields and disciplines, and said that for any student with a curiosity about how the world works, a career in engineering may be for them. 

Mr Jack Ronayne, an engineering teacher in St Nathy’s College, said: “We were delighted to welcome the team from Uisce Éireann to the school today. The students thoroughly enjoyed the presentations and were interested to learn about the water treatment process."

“Events such as these are good opportunities to showcase some of the career paths that are available to our students, and to get the students thinking about the kind of careers they may wish to pursue in the future,” said Mr Ronayne.

Ronan McDonnell of Uisce Éireann added: “It was a real pleasure for us to come to St Nathy’s today and spend time with the students here. Hopefully we may have inspired one or two to forge a career in water services in the future!”

Engineers Week is an annual event which showcases the diverse world of engineering to students around the country. Uisce Éireann is among the largest employer of engineers in Ireland, with teams of engineers and other STEM technicians working across asset management and operations, infrastructure delivery and several other directorates.

Uisce Éireann is committed to meeting the significant challenges of providing the water and wastewater services required to support the planned delivery of hundreds of thousands of new homes across Ireland in the years ahead. The visit to the venerated Ballaghaderreen school provided an excellent opportunity to inspire the next generation of engineers, whose skills and talents will be required to make those plans a reality.