Mr. Maurice Hearne:

I represent engineers throughout the local authority sector. For generations, engineers have been responsible for the design, building, maintenance and operation of water services within the State. They have a deep sense of and a deep commitment to public service and in many cases engineers do what their fathers and grandfathers did before them. Their reaction in 2012, when we first engaged on the establishment of Irish Water, was one of conditional optimism because at that time we had been struggling with a legacy of chronic underinvestment in the sector. General operatives, plumbers and other staff were also expected to provide and maintain a service on a shoestring and chickens were coming home to roost all over the place. We saw that with the outbreaks of cryptosporidium and water outages in different parts of the country. Privately, engineers were worrying deeply about what would happen if we had an outage in the Vartry reservoir, where there is no backup supply and there would be perhaps hundreds of thousands of people without water. The staff have a deep commitment to providing services to their communities. The staff belong to the communities - they are not some contractor brought in from some other part of the country to carry out work. They are local staff and they have a commitment to and vested interest in ensuring the service is provided to the best standard.

During 2012, 2013 and 2014 we became increasingly concerned with the way the proposal to establish Irish Water was implemented. It was done without any consultation with unions or staff who provide the service. We were increasingly concerned that the intention was to gather everything together in one organisation in order that it could be privatised in the medium term. In 2012 we were in the middle of the biggest fiscal crisis in the history of the State and this was not an unreasonable view to take.

Our members are in favour of the service being retained in the public sector and, indeed, in the local authority sector. They are concerned that the impact it will have on local authorities will be substantial, following on from the privatisation of the bin service. There is also a concern that moving the water service from local authorities removes it from public scrutiny and accountability. We want to ensure that what has been built over generations is not only maintained but restored and expanded to provide the best possible services to our citizens. There are issues such as the retention of local knowledge of general operatives, plumbers and engineers, all of whom have an intimate knowledge of the local water services structure and infrastructure.

Another point that has been repeatedly made to me over the years concerns ethos.