Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I did not say they were directly comparable; rather, I think it is incongruous. I understand the differences. Employees of local authorities are subject to FEMPI cuts.

If you have now gone on secondment to Irish Water, you can get a bonus and migrate back to your local authority in a year or two depending on your secondment arrangement. There is a difficulty there. We talk about transferability of people not just within the Civil Service but across the broader public service. That issue needs to be examined.

I come back to the issue of the monopolies. Irish Water is a monopoly. While it must operate on a commercial basis, I would hope every Government Department and non-commercial semi-State body operates to good commercial practices. We should not to mix up achieving value for money and being in the competitive commercial world. Could the Minister address the issue of State monopolies that are not really out in the commercial world.

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