Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Irish Water was set up by a Government decision to provide a single utility to take over from 34 local authorities and deal with the situation that has arisen in recent years in the context of the supply of quality water, the capacity and standard of that supply and so on and the opportunity by so doing to extract and save €1.1 billion in operating costs over the next seven years. Irish Water was set up following a tender process and it was agreed by Government that it should be set up on the basis of the tender submitted by Bord Gáis, which had expertise available to it through its development over quite a period. Were Irish Water to be set up independently as a single entity, the estimated cost would have been twice what has been put in for the commencement of Irish Water.

As the Deputy is aware, Bord Gáis has a situation where performance pay is available to employees. As he is aware also, the unions in Bord Gáis have agreed that there will be a pay freeze until 2016. The unions have further agreed that no increments should be paid and that the performance pay is based on achieving a particular set of criteria, objectives and targets. The same applies in the case of Irish Water, Uisce Éireann. I have asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, in the interests of transparency and accountability, to have the chief executive provide him with the full information on those criteria that apply in the case of Uisce Éireann, Irish Water, so that everybody will understand what is involved if an employee is to achieve an output of work or a productivity that would allow him or her achieve a performance pay rating.

Having spoken to an engineer who came from a local authority to Irish Water as part of a normal application process, the person involved is probably worse off in the sense that the level of travel and subsistence available during the person's time as a local authority employee is not available now to the same extent.

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