Dr. Paul McGowan:

Members raised many issues that we, as a body, need to absorb and take on board in how we interact with Members in the future. We are mindful that our function relates to accountability and transparency, and whether Irish Water is performing compared to what it says it is going to do. I represent the Water Advisory Body but I also work for the Commission for Regulation of Utilities. We will draw on whatever we can use from our own work, as will the EPA and An Fóram Uisce. We will also have the external view from the two other members of the body. It is important that the five members act together. I come back to what is important and why. Members of the committee have set forth some issues and we will take them on board.

I ask members to be patient because holding Irish Water to account across such a range is a tall order. We expect to deliver four reports per year to this committee. Each of those reports will not be a full and comprehensive report on every aspect of Irish Water's performance because the data do not get generated with that level of frequency. Each quarter, we are looking for a theme for a report. What area might we look at? If members bear with us, we will try to come up with a reporting structure that will meet the requirements of the committee. As we interact with the committee, we will take feedback and try to the best of our abilities to do the job with which we have been tasked.

I will try to address a few of the questions that were asked. Our vision is at the core of what the legislation says. We recognise that this is about transparency. It is about holding Irish Water to account to the Oireachtas and the public at large. There is a huge volume of information out there and there will be increasing amounts of information coming forward from Irish Water. It is about cutting through that to identify what is important and what people are interested in. Hearing the views of members today will help us frame that.

How can we can improve communication?

It is only through having reports that cut to the chase and that look at the important issues, and through interacting with the committee as we produce quarterly reports to explain what we have found, that we can identify further areas at which we can look not only on behalf of the Oireachtas, but also on behalf of the public.

Deputy O'Dowd raised a point about emergencies, which was well made. As Irish Water would admit, it is learning from the experiences it has had, for example, in respect of the burst pipe at Staleen. Subsequent to that burst, it identified where it needs to improve. One would expect of any utility that it should learn. What has been highlighted by the recent events, in terms of both the cold snap and the drought, is the resilience, or lack of resilience in some instances, of the water system. That comes down to investment in infrastructure and process and ensuring not only that water and wastewater are processed to quality standards, but also that the capacity is available and conservation is at the core. That means conservation on both the public side and the user side of the stopcock. All of these matters are of relevance to the role of the Water Advisory Body as we report to the committee.

I will just clarify in respect of Deputy O'Dowd's question on our involvement in the water supply project to bring water to the Dublin and eastern region that we do not have a direct role in any project. Our role is to report and to try to bring some level of transparency and structure to the data and information that exist out there so that we can be much more effective in communicating how well Irish Water is performing against its business plan. Of course part of that - and this speaks to the issue of operating expenditure, opex, and capital expenditure, capex, which was raised by Deputy Ó Broin - is being very clear. What is the baseline? What has Irish Water set itself up to achieve and how is it performing against that baseline? Part of our work is to try to ensure that we are clear about how it is performing, but also about what it is performing against - the targets it has set or the targets that were set for it.

I welcome this interaction with the committee at this first opportunity we have had. I hope we will have a full complement within a small number of weeks. I do not know exactly what the timing of that will be, but the committee can rest assured that our focus is on determining when we can produce the first report. To be clear, after producing the first report, our obligation will then be to do them quarterly. We want to get this right, but, at the same time, we are conscious that the committee will look for the first report. I hope it will bear with us. We will seek to produce it at the earliest opportunity. We very much look forward to interacting with the committee, taking feedback, and ensuring we can fulfil our statutory function in respect of transparency and accountability.