‘Untruths’ of Irish Water setup costs
Fergus O’Dowd made the comments at an Oireachtas committee meeting yesterday where Irish Water said it wants to become a single public-service utility by 2021.
Irish Water currently has Service Level Agreements (SLA) with the country’s local authorities, who deploy staff to carry out work on behalf of the company, which it plans to conclude once it becomes a single public-service utility.
However at yesterday’s Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government, Mr O’Dowd criticised Irish Water for a lack of transparency within the company, and for the costs in establishing the utility.
“We were told the total set-up costs of consultants would be less than €20m,” said Mr O’Dowd. “That’s the truth. And what happened? It was over €200m. They went crazy with consultants, they spent money left, right, and centre and they left people like me, who set up the company and who fully supports what you are saying here today in terms of a single utility, with egg on our faces and created trouble up and down the country.
“People lost their seats over this. We acted in good faith but we were told untruths, it is appalling what happened there.”
Mike Quinn, group CEO of Irish Water’s parent company, Ervia, said the current arrangement through SLAs leads to “inconsistent customer service outcomes” because of the “multiple and varied ways of working” carried out across the country.
“Implementing the single public utility, where all water services staff would work directly for the national utility and deliver a joined-up single service, is the optimum way to manage our water and wastewater services,” said Mr Quinn.
Mr Quinn said the change would, in time, free up €70m a year in operational savings and efficiencies.
Irish Water managing director Jerry Grant said there is a need to build a system that would draw water from the Shannon to serve the needs of the capital.
“The Liffey is currently providing 40% of all its water resources to meet the needs of the greater Dublin area,” said Mr Grant. “It is absolutely at its sustainable limit. If we had a dry period, a critical dry period, we would be in serious trouble in the greater Dublin area. There is no quick way out of this other than to build a new scheme that will secure future supply. That is the Shannon scheme.”
Mr Quinn said he does not believe the public realise the improvements that are needed to the water network.
“I don’t think we’ve done a good job on engaging with the public on the challenges facing Irish Water,” he said. “There is a complete lack of knowledge around the state of the infrastructure that provides those services.
“We have a job of work to do this year, which I will be leading, to make sure that message is understood by the public, why we are spending the amount of money we are spending to improve the water infrastructure.”
The lengthy meeting saw a number of politicians query officials and make observations on Irish Water.
Cork North Central Solidarity TD Mick Barry criticised plans to introduce excessive use charges, which he said are an attempt to introduce water charges through the back door. He questioned how Irish Water would determine excessive usage when 42% of homes are unmetered.
However, Mr Grant would not respond to Fianna Fáil senator Jennifer Murnane O’Connor’s attempt to raise one person’s complaint about their service.
“That was a Joe Duffy conversation that you’ve reported, and frankly he got it completely wrong, as very often happens on Joe Duffy,” said Mr Grant.
