Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 February 2019
56. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the status of the reform of water services including the creation of a single utility and a referendum to enshrine water in public ownership. [8451/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Government’s Water Services Policy Statement 2018-2025 sets the broad policy context for the development of water services, including the position of Irish Water as the single, publicly owned national water services authority. This is consistent with the recommendations made by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services in 2017, and the legislative reforms in the Water Services Acts.
In this context, Irish Water has proposed fully integrating its operations and ending the current operational arrangements for the delivery of water services through service level agreements, or SLAs, with local authorities. This, of course, will give rise to significant organisational change for local authorities and their staff.
To this effect on 19 September 2018, the Director General of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) reported on a process of engagement, undertaken at my request, with the parties involved in the transformation programme for Irish Water, including, ICTU and relevant affiliated unions, local government management through the County and City Management Association, Irish Water and my Department. In response to the WRC report, I asked the parties to engage in a process to work towards the development of a stable structural and operational framework for the future. This engagement is to commence in the coming weeks.
In relation to the question of a constitutional amendment on the public ownership of water services, the position is that I have received Government approval for the priority drafting, by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel in the Attorney General's Office, of proposed amendments to the Thirty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution (Water in Public Ownership) (No. 2) Bill 2016, which will focus on retaining the entity charged with the provision of public water services in public ownership. This Bill is currently before the Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government. Work on the amendments is being given priority attention by the Office of the Attorney General. I have written to the Chairperson of the Committee as recently as 21 January 2019 and will continue to keep the Committee updated on progress in this matter.
