Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 6, 7, 17 and 30 together. The programme for Government and the memorandum of understanding with the EU, the IMF and the ECB both provide for the introduction of domestic water charges. The Government considers that charging based on usage is the fairest way to charge for water and has decided that water meters should be installed in households connected to public water supplies. The Government has also decided that Irish Water, a new State-owned water company to be established as an independent subsidiary within the Bord Gáis Éireann Group, will be responsible for the metering programme. The Water Services Act 2013 provided for the establishment of Irish Water. The Act assigns the necessary powers to allow Irish Water to undertake the metering programme. The installation of meter boxes and domestic water meters is scheduled to commence in July 2013 and will be rolled out nationally as quickly as possible thereafter.

The procurement process for the metering programme, which is being managed by Irish Water, is at an advanced stage. The criteria for the procurement process were developed by my Department, in consultation with Bord Gáis Éireann, to ensure SMEs have an opportunity to compete for contracts. No subcontractors have yet been appointed to implement the national water metering programme but tendering for acceptance onto a panel of subcontractors established by my Department remains open until the end of this month. Some 158 eligible subcontractors have already been accepted onto the panel. Regional management contractors, to be recruited by Irish Water through public tendering procedures, are due to be selected later this month. These contractors will have responsibility for appointing subcontractors and it is expected they will be utilising the resources of the subcontractors from the pre-qualified panel created by my Department.

I expect 1,600 jobs will be sustained through the national metering programme. The contracts for the installation programme have been prepared to ensure that 25% of the jobs generated will be for people from small businesses, the unemployment register, school leavers, graduates and apprentices. These jobs will be sustained over a two to three year period while the installation programme is being rolled out.

Irish Water recently announced that it has awarded a contract to Cork-based company Abtran to set up and run a customer support call centre for the service. The call centre will employ up to 100 people initially to support roll-out of the national metering programme, with 400 jobs to be created by the end of 2014.

Measures to address leakage will be complementary to the water metering programme. The Department, in consultation with Irish Water, is developing proposals for customer side leaks detected as a result of the metering programme. With regard to water mains rehabilitation, significant investment has been made in recent years in water management systems and active leakage control has provided the platform for more intensive water mains repair and replacement contracts under the current water services investment programme. Over €247 million has been spent on water conservation projects in total over the past decade, with €39.9 million spent in 2011 and a further €39.25 million in 2012.

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