Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I understand the Deputy's concern, but Irish Water will be the biggest utility and the biggest State company to be established in my political lifetime. Nothing like it has happened since the establishment of the ESB. A similar process in Northern Ireland on a much smaller scale took the bones of 20 years to fully implement. We want to ensure that the services are not discommoded. That is the reason we have arranged for service-level agreements with every local authority. Some would say we should have been more robust in negotiating those agreements, but we wanted to bring a harmonious migration of local authority employees under the wing of this new important utility. There is a convincing case - not for me to make now - for establishing a proper utility to ensure we have a safe water supply. The nexus of the Deputy's question is transformational focus on efficiencies within the public service. I refer to the reform agenda and the progress report which we published last week on shared services, procurement, property management, downsizing and changes in rosters and sick leave. These measures have been transformational and of significant benefit to the State.

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