Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming in today. I have major concerns and I agree with the Deputy O'Dowd. There is a feeling that Irish Water is stand-alone company and that it is not with other bodies. This is a concern for me. Originally a 12-year service level agreement, to 2025, was agreed with the local authorities. Now Irish Water wants to change this. I am concerned about this. Taking Carlow as an example, 50 staff there work with Irish Water. Of these, 30 are outdoor and 20 are in the offices. My concern is these local jobs would be taken away. We have local staff who know every pipe and system, but the talk is that Irish Water will group together various areas. Will there be local offices, as there are in local authorities, so staff can work from them? There is major concern among the 50 staff in Carlow because they do not know where they are going. Originally they were told it would be 12 years. This needs to be looked at because now Irish Water wants to bring it to seven years. This is unacceptable and I do not accept it.

Where will the funding come from? We are looking at building a new technological university. Our capacity with regard to sewerage is massive. Unless we get funding for all of this who will decide which area gets funding? That will be crucial.

Originally Irish Water went with the Scotland and England plan and this has been mentioned several times. The English plan had to change because there were massive issues in 2012. I could give the witnesses 20 plans from my local authority because I have every one of them. Going back to older houses built 50 years ago, 40 of them could be on the same line. This means if one is blocked it will block 20 more. This is a massive issue. In 2012, England had to change its entire scheme because of this and the fact there were so many older estates. I can name five estates in Carlow with 40 houses on one line. In another estate, 30 houses are on the same line. We are told Irish Water is not looking at this but it is an issue. I have contacted Irish Water several times and it has got back to me. I will not say it has not got back to me because it has. The biggest issue for Irish Water is that sewerage lines are going through the middle of houses, gardens and backyards because they are old. Unless a plan is put in place to sort this it will be a major issue. The money has to be there and it has to be distributed fairly to each local authority. Every local authority should be left with Irish Water because people know their own area.

There are too many contractors. Recently we had a problem where someone from Irish Water went to a house and said he was there to deal with a problem with pressure. The lady rang Irish Water who told her it did not know the man and that he did not work for them. She called the Garda. With that, Irish Water came back and said he was a contractor but it did not realise he was in the area on that day and that it was sorry. This is unacceptable. Irish Water is stating it provides a service that is better than that of the local authority and better value for money. It is absolutely not. This old lady rang the Garda because when she rang Irish Water it did not know who the man was. This is unacceptable. A service cannot be provided unless the company knows exactly what it is doing. I have massive concerns. The only thing I will say is when I ring Irish Water about a problem it comes back fairly quickly and follows up. I would like answers to these questions.