Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are number of issues to be addressed, but I will deal first with the issue raised by Deputy Stanley. He is quite right that the solution to the appalling waste of resources, with 42% of water wasted, is to deal with that. The best way to deal with it is to improve the mains network where possible. On the customer side, we must also ensure there are no leaks between the mains and the premises where the tap is located.

The evidence from group water schemes so far, such as those in Cavan-Monaghan, is that these schemes have saved as much as 80% of water. I am aware that some of those schemes involved farms. Significant savings will result following the installation of meters, because meters will track usage. District meters will track a housing estate, but the individual meter will track the individual household. If there is a leak between the public supply and the private house, Irish Water will repair the first leak for free. In other words, there will be an uninterrupted, metered supply between the public supply and the private house. This will protect resources significantly.

On the question of sub-contractors and regional contractors, I understand there are eight different regions for the country and that there could be up to eight regional contractors. Then, approximately 220 companies will be pre-qualified as competent SMEs to do the work. Every regional contractor will have to insist that 10% of the people working on the metering programme are drawn from SMEs, 10% from the unemployed register and 5% are apprentices, graduates or school leavers. This is the minimum required. The more the contracts are broken down, the better the opportunity there will be for smaller SMEs to get the work. However, it is a competitive process. Therefore, the regional contractor will seek tenders and the person tendering must meet the criteria in terms of the percentages. The idea is to ensure, as well as possible, that as many local people as possible are employed in the work.