Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 December 2013
1. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the total number of staff currently in employment with Irish Water; the total number anticipated when it reaches full strength; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52065/13]
View answerThe Water Services Act 2013 provided for the establishment of Irish Water as an independent subsidiary under the Companies Acts within the Bord Gáis Éireann Group. The Act also provided Irish Water with the necessary powers to undertake the domestic water metering programme. The Water Services (No. 2) Bill 2013, which was published on 2 December 2013, will provide for the transfer of water services functions from the 34 water services authorities to Irish Water.
Irish Water has programme management arrangements in place in preparation for this transfer of functions from 1 January 2014, to provide for customer service and billing and to implement the domestic water metering programme. The Steering Group for the Water Sector Reform programme agreed that, to ensure skills within the sector were fully availed of in building up the new organisation, competitions for positions in asset management, capital delivery and operations would be restricted to staff in the partner organisations, which are the local authorities, Bord Gáis Éireann, and my Department. Open competitions are held for all other positions. Data supplied by Irish Water indicate that 203 staff have been recruited to the Irish Water organisation with 121 having taken up duty and 82 due to start. A further 80 staff from the local authorities and 4 staff from my Department have been seconded to Irish Water on a temporary basis. Recruitment beyond these numbers will be dependent both on budgets available and organisational needs.
