Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is Deputy Flaherty. You are ruthless today, Chairman. I will stick to the six minutes, you will be relieved to hear. I thank everybody for coming.

Reference was made to farmers. Every time one comes into a committee meeting, reference has to be made to the farmers, the discharge and all that. It is important we put on record that no sector of society has paid a bigger price or makes a bigger contribution to water quality and the environment in this country than farmers, who are facing into it again in terms of climate action targets and the nitrates directive. Ultimately, responsibility for water quality rests with the EPA, Irish Water and, obviously, the Department.

Moving on from that, I wish to hone in on two specific points and I am happy for the witnesses to come back with the responses at the end or whatever the Chairman directs. In the Irish Water contribution it is stated that Irish Water has prioritised a knowledge audit of the 20 largest water treatment plants in the country. This arises from the meeting with the Minister at the weekend. I do not think that is sufficient. If Irish Water is saying 20, and even if one goes on the basis of one per county, there is a large tract of the country where Irish Water is not carrying out an audit. Particularly as there is an imminent handover of the service from local authorities to Irish Water, there should be a full and complete audit of all treatment plants right across the country. Can we get a list of the 20 plants? Why is this audit not being completed across the entirety of the network?

I wish to raise a second point. I agree - I think everybody does - that while we might not have agreed with Irish Water at the outset, it is critical now that we move very fast to a single-purpose utility. I appreciate there are industrial relations issues at the moment, and those need to be resolved. However, the kernel of the point I wish to make is that I believe there is undercapacity in terms of the number of staff working within the local authority network at the moment. How engaged is Irish Water with those employee numbers? Has it had much engagement? Where there are existing vacancies within the network, for example, will it be Irish Water's view that ahead of any transfer over to Irish Water, those vacancies will need to be filled? More than anything, it reads true on what Mr. Gleeson said about the incident at the weekend. This was human error. Human error in the main happens because facilities and services are not properly staffed, and it is very clear and evident that that was largely at the core of what happened at the weekend.

To summarise the question, how aware is Irish Water of understaffing at the various treatment plants? I do not want to go into specifics because I know there are other members to come in. Can Irish Water advise the local authorities to fill those roles? If this service transfers over to Irish Water, these roles certainly will not be filled afterwards. Therefore, if it is the case that this is transferring over to Irish Water, I want to see a situation whereby optimum staff levels transfer over and we are not transferring over at 90% or 85%.