Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 October 2017
277. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government if the ending of the service level agreement between Irish Water and local authorities has implications for retaining water services in public ownership; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44466/17]
View answerI have been informed by Ervia (which has responsibility for Irish Water), that they consider that the public water system will benefit significantly by greater integration of operations into the single utility. Consequently, the Ervia Board has agreed in principle not to renew the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) beyond 2025 (when they are due to end) and to move to a full integrated public utility operations model. A process of engagement with local authorities on the proposed next steps on the transformation plan has now commenced. The current SLAs remain in place until such time as an alternative is agreed.
The SLAs that are in place between Irish Water and Local Authorities have no impact on the ownership of the company.
Irish Water is in full State ownership. Subsection 5(6) of the Water Services Act 2013, as amended by Section 46 of the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013, prohibits each of the three shareholders from disposing of their shareholding in Irish Water and thus placed a statutory prohibition on the privatisation of Irish Water. To further strengthen this protection of the State’s ownership of the company, section 2 of the Water Services Act 2014 provides that any future proposal for legislation that would involve a change in the State ownership of Irish Water must be put to a plebiscite of the people.
