Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, Deputy Hogan, said on television last night that the committee was told in advance - when representatives of Bord Gáis came before it on 6 November 2012 - that consultants were to be appointed. I would like to remind the House of what the committee was told on that occasion:

With regard to resources, Bord Gáis Energy is being sold. The billing system we use in Bord Gáis Energy is already being adapted for Irish Water and the design for the Irish Water billing system is in progress. The billing system will be ready by 1 January 2014 and we have already seconded resources from our energy retail business into Irish Water, transferring those who are proficient in the establishment of billing and customer service. Therefore, this expertise will not be lost with the privatisation.

That is what we were told. Why would we have even asked whether consultants were being appointed? Every indication was given that this was being done in-house. Some of these very sizeable contracts were awarded after that. Just because €180 million has been earmarked for the establishment of Irish Water does not mean it has to be spent.

The purpose of partnering with Bord Gáis Energy was to make savings because we were supposed to be leveraging spare capacity in that company.

The second issue relating to parliamentary questions is crucial. We received a document yesterday that outlined month by month what the Department knew. Why were parliamentary questions not answered? We need a clear answer from the Minister on the matter because this cannot be allowed to happen again.

In a radio interview today, the Minister said he was not micro-managing this. Is €180 million micro-managing? At the very least he should have understood that high level information was coming in, outlining how things were happening. In some cases the Department even queried some of the contracts. There is a very significant gap between this and what the Minister is saying publicly. He claims to be appalled at the level of consultancy fees while at the same time there was very significant information within the Department disputing what he is saying. He must account for that.

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