Léim ar aghaidh chuig an bpríomhábhar
Gnáthamharc

Irish Water Staff

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 February 2014

Tuesday, 4 February 2014

Ceisteanna (469)

Mattie McGrath

Ceist:

469. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the number of staff from South Tipperary County Council, Clonmel Borough Council, North Tipperary County Council and other town councils in Tipperary that have been seconded or transferred to Irish Water to date in 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5379/14]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

The Water Services Act 2013 provided for the establishment of Irish Water as a subsidiary of Bord Gáis Éireann to be formed and registered under the Companies Act.

A fundamental underpinning of the water reform programme is to ensure that the skills and experience built up over many years in local authorities are put to best use for the long-term benefit of the customer and that there is no negative impact on service to customers during the transition. The Water Services (No.2) Act 2013 transferred statutory responsibility for water services to Irish Water and provided for local authorities to act as agents for Irish Water, with this relationship being expressed through Service Level Agreements. The majority of the existing staff remain employees of local authorities working under such arrangements from 1 January 2014. As such, no staff transferred from local authorities or from other public sector positions to Irish Water.

Any employees of Irish Water who came from the local authority sector or from the public service sector immediately prior to taking up a post with Irish Water applied for advertised posts and were recruited through a competitive process.

Irish Water is currently recruiting to build up the internal capabilities required within the organisation and the number 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.

Barr
Roinn