John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

It is intended that the assessment will review the existing structures for the delivery of water services and will determine the most effective structures for delivering high quality, competitively priced water services to customers and for infrastructure provision. The review of the current delivery structures will include an examination of the performance of local authorities in recent years in the provision of water services and will determine whether the existing structures are the most efficient and effective for the delivery and operation of water services.

The assessment will also have regard to other structural reforms that are ongoing, including the establishment of the regulator for water, the introduction of metered water charges, the implementation of the recommendations of the local government efficiency review group and of the value for money study of the water services investment programme as well as the structures necessary for the implementation of the river basin management plans.

The Government is committed to continued high levels of investment in water services. This investment is informed by a clear strategy that prioritises water conservation, improvement in water quality and provision of capacity to facilitate enterprise needs and to underpin economic recovery. Over time, this will further improve the general condition of Irish water services infrastructure. While any infrastructure will be vulnerable to unprecedented weather events, the investment should improve the resilience of the infrastructure. Combined with the Government proposals to commence a programme of domestic metering to be funded by the National Pensions Reserve Fund and to establish an independent regulator for the water sector, this will build on the investment already made in the sector to radically transform our water services sector over the coming decade.

I acknowledge the difficulties the unprecedented weather caused for communities, and I commend all public organisations, voluntary groups and communities that worked together throughout the five week period to ensure the social and business life of this country could continue as much as possible. We will continue to learn from these experiences to ensure that all actors are appropriately engaged to ensure optimum response and continuance of public service in such challenging circumstances.

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