Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending. I am cognisant of the fact that Mr. Tierney was appointed on 29 January 2013 so my first question applies to representatives from Bord Gáis. I understand that Bord Gáis won the tender to take over Irish Water over Bord na Móna. In that process, Bord Gáis put forward the argument that it had 55 experts in its employ who could provide expertise in setting up Irish Water. As reported in the document before us, those staff were not made available to Irish Water when it was set up so it required consultants.

I refer to pages 5 and 6 of the document. Can Mr. Tierney answer clearly whether this fact was made known to the Department before it made a decision on the awarding of the contract for the takeover of Irish Water by Bord Gáis? The Government and NewERA contracted this project to Bord Gáis and it appears they were sold a pup. They were given to understand staff were available but then the staff were told they would be needed to continue to run Bord Gáis. It reminds me of the story of the man in the nightclub late at night trying to attract a lady and telling her he will bring her home in his Porsche. Then, she discovers there is no Porsche and that she has to pay for the taxi to bring them home. That is how it looks to me. Bord Gáis got this contract on the basis of in-house expertise and now we are paying €86 million of the €150 million start-up costs, some 57% of the budget, because the expertise is not now available to Irish Water.

I am aware of the challenges facing Irish Water. We have 1,000 water schemes across the country at risk of bacterial and viral contamination. Water in Roscommon is subject to boil notices on a continual basis and some 41% of water is lost through leaks. There are flood warnings across the Shannon and water shortages in Dublin and Leinster. People are prepared to pay for services but not for poor water or no water. Approximately €1 million was spent on engineering companies known to me, such as Nicholas O'Dwyer and JR Barry. How much work has gone into dealing with the issue of the shortage of water in Dublin and in Leinster, as referred to by Deputy Coonan, and the problem along the Shannon? Over Christmas we saw people on television who were afraid that their front gardens would be washed away by flooding. How much work has gone in during the preparatory phases to set up the reservoir at Garryhinch, County Laois, to deal with the problem of the flooding in the Shannon and the lack of water in Dublin and Leinster?

With regard to the €11 billion worth of assets Irish Water owns, as per the document, it states that there is no satisfactory record of the assets and a limited record of their condition. We have established a figure of €11 billion of assets available to Irish Water to start working on. Can Mr. Tierney clarify how the figure was arrived at? Does the figure stand up? It is important that we know what we are starting off with. The figure is used in comparison to the €86 million in consultancy fees. It may pale into insignificance in respect of €11 billion of assets. Clearly there is no identification of how the €11 billion figure was arrived at. Can Mr. Tierney provide clarity?