Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 January 2014
446. Deputy Tom Barry asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the number of appointments apart from Bord Gáis Éireann and local authority employees that were made to Irish Water. [2615/14]
View answer455. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the anticipated spending on bonuses for staff in Irish Water; if his Department approved the budget for such bonuses; the date on which approval occurred; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2716/14]
View answer456. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if his Department approved spending for a new gym at the Irish Water headquarters; the estimated expenditure involved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2717/14]
View answer461. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if Irish Water has taken on staff through the JobBridge scheme; the number of staff involved; the duration of their employment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2722/14]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 446, 455, 456 and 461 together.
The Water Services Act 2013 provided for the establishment of Irish Water as a subsidiary of Bórd Gáis Éireann to be formed and registered under the Companies Act.
Irish Water is currently recruiting to build up the internal capabilities required within the organisation and the numbers of staff employed is an operational matter for the organisation. It was agreed by the Steering Group for the Water Sector Reform programme 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 i.e. Bord Gáis Éireann, local authorities and my Department in the first instance. Open competitions are held for all other positions and details of these are available on Irish Water’s website www.water.ie.
Data supplied by Irish Water indicates that at present 310 staff appointments have been made in Irish Water. The breakdown of these staff in terms of their employment immediately before recruitment is as follows: 59 were recruited from Bord Gáis Éireann; 107 from Local Authorities; 5 from my Department and the balance, 139, were externally recruited.
In addition to the staff employed directly in Irish Water, one hundred people are directly employed on the National domestic water metering programme and 871 people have been employed through Regional Contractors on that programme. The Irish Water Call Centre employs 44 people.
Neither Irish Water nor the Metering Programme have employed anyone under the JobBridge programme. However, a social inclusion commitment formed part of the regional management contractors’ contracts with Irish Water and included requirements for a defined percentage of people working on the domestic water metering programme to be drawn from SMEs, the unemployment register, apprentices, graduates or school leavers.
The employment terms and conditions for Irish Water staff are a matter for the company and I understand that these are in line with the arrangements applying with Bord Gáis Éireann. I also understand that no bonuses have been paid to Irish Water staff, but I have asked the company set out the basis and content of the model as applied to Irish Water contracts of employment, including the criteria against which high performance will be evaluated and the kinds of targets (at company and division or grade levels) against which such performance may be bench-marked. The management of facilities including Headquarter and regional offices is an operational matter for the company and one in which I have no role.
