Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom fáilte a chur roimh na finnéithe ó Uisce Éireann anseo inniu. Is dócha go mbeidh cruinniú spéisiúil agus suimiúil againn. Ar aghaidh linn. I welcome the team from Uisce Éireann, Mr. John Tierney, Mr. Paul O'Donoghue, Mr. John Dempsey, Mr. John Barry and Mr. Ger Cowhig to our meeting. I acknowledge that we issued an invitation to them to attend this meeting very late on Friday afternoon, for obvious reasons, and I thank them for confirming they would attend and supplying the information in advance of today's meeting. I am sure the committee members found it very helpful in terms of researching their questions for our exchange this afternoon.

I have stated consistently that the creation of Uisce Éireann is a good news story. It is a very significant undertaking and a gargantuan task on the part of the State to transfer the delivery of water services from 34 local authorities to one single public utility. Obviously the level of curiosity and disquiet on the issue of consultancy fees is the focus of our meeting this afternoon.

I acknowledge that the management of Uisce Éireann will come before the committee in February to discuss other issues related to the set-up, roll-out and so forth and other very significant matters.

The primary focus of this meeting, however, is to establish precisely how much money was spent on consultants, the purpose for which it was used, whether taxpayers obtained value for money, whether the expenditure was worthwhile and what we have as a result of it. I gave the example of information technology this morning when I asked whether Irish Water paid for IT advice or a physical manifestation of IT resources. This will be at the forefront of questioners' minds.
I will first call the main spokespersons who will have longer speaking times than other members. The first speaker is Deputy Brian Cowen, followed by Deputies Brian Stanley, Catherine Murphy, Kevin Humphreys and Noel Coonan. Other members of the committee may then contribute and non-members will subsequently have an opportunity to ask questions. The question-and-answer format is the best use of our time.
Before I ask Mr. Tierney some questions on the establishment of Irish Water and other matters, I will refer to the technical aspects of giving evidence and the protection afforded to witnesses. I draw attention to the fact that, by virtue of 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to the joint committee. However, if they are directed by it to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and they continue to do so, they are entitled thereafter only to qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. They are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against a Member of either House, a person outside the Houses or an official by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable. Opening statements made to the committee and the proceedings of the meeting will be published on the committee's website. Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.
I described Bord Gáis as being in many respects the midwife of Uisce Éireann. The reasonable assumption on the part of all concerned is that, given that Bord Gáis is an established utility company, Irish Water would have expertise available to it in the areas of billing, supply, technical services and operational capacity. That being said, we accept that this expertise will not be 100% and Irish Water will have to avail of outside expertise on occasion. At what level did it become obvious that outside expertise was necessary? Can we be guaranteed that the consultancy services used by Uisce Éireann were not available within the resources of Bord Gáis?
On processes and the decisions made on consultancy services that have given rise to the expenditure under discussion, I ask Mr. Tierney to indicate who in Uisce Éireann made the relevant decisions and who ultimately signed off on those decisions. Was the Government kept informed of this expenditure? Was it made aware of it in advance and was its sanction required? Was the Cabinet aware of the expenditure? I ask Mr. Tierney to bear in mind my questions when he makes his opening remarks. I invite him to address the committee.