Mr. Feargal Ó Coigligh:

The Chairman is correct on that point. It might be helpful for the committee to explain that at the moment there is Irish Water and a staff cohort of approximately 800 people. There is then GNI and its own staff cohort, and then there is Ervia, which is the central holding company in the middle sharing services for both companies. It directly employs some 400 to 500 staff members. That cohort of staff needs to be divided between GNI and Irish Water in the future. That work is under way at the moment. Staff have been identified for transfer to either Irish Water or GNI. This provides a formal mechanism to do that whereas, in actual fact, much of the preparatory work is taking place at the moment so that the companies will become what is called operationally separate from next year but the legal separation and the deployment of staff is provided for in these heads.

This does not deal with the issue of local authority staff whatsoever. There were existing provisions in law in the 2013 Act about designation. We are currently in negotiations with unions under the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, regarding how Irish Water can take control of the local authority cohort of staff. Unions have made clear their wish that staff should not be required to transfer. We are, therefore, trying to negotiate a position which gives Irish Water direct control of all its operations in agreement with unions. That is the process which is under way at the moment and this Act does not go into that area at all.