Dáil debates

Wednesday, 17 December 2014

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed)

 

2:25 pm

Photo of Michael McNamaraMichael McNamara (Clare, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Section 13 seeks to increase the membership of the board of Ervia. Ervia, formerly Bord Gáis, was chosen to be the parent company for Irish Water due to its experience in developing the infrastructure of a State utility company. Indeed, it has commendable experience in that regard.

Bord Gáis was established in 1976 and section 7 of the Gas Act 1976 stated that the board would consist of a chairman and such number of other members, not being more than six, as the Minister for Finance determined. After it was established it embarked on a very ambitious project. The gas utilities were fragmented across the State. That was cured and gas leaks were fixed. The Kinsale pipeline to Cork was completed and a big pipeline was constructed to Dublin. There were then pipelines constructed from Dublin to many of our smaller cities such as Limerick and Galway. Even Nenagh, the nearest large town to the Minister, was connected to the gas network. That was a huge achievement by the company. It was overseen by a board of six people and it managed to complete all of these tasks with that board.

In 2013, under this Government, it was decided that the board had to be expanded from six to eight members. That was done in the Gas Regulation Act 2013. However, a second very interesting provision was added under the Gas Regulation Act.

Under the provision:

A person may not be appointed or act as a member of the Board if he or she is a director or an officer of a company or other body corporate which engages, within or outside the State, in(a) the supply of natural gas,

(b) the shipping of natural gas,

(c) the production of natural gas,

(d) the supply of electricity, or

(e) the generation of electricity.
The provision is very sensible, ensuring there is no conflict of interest between the directors and the company on the board of which they sit. The Government proposes no such provision in this Bill. It is important that we have such a provision because of media reports last month that the head of Irish Water's parent company, Ervia, had confirmed that he was to divest himself of more than 400,000 shares in a company that made money from installing water meters. In the interests of balance, I note that he said, “I have excused myself from any commercial contractual dealings with anything to do with CAW [Celtic Anglian Water] in the company which is what is required under the code of conduct so everything I have done is above board.” He also said proceeds from the divestment would go to Focus Ireland.

This is not a question of a conflict of interest but of a perceived conflict of interest. It is very important that there be no perceived conflicts of interest in the company and that legislative provisions be introduced on Report Stage to ensure this. As Deputy Brian Stanley pointed out, there is the board of Ervia, the parent company and the board of Irish Water, the subsidiary company. This is how they are referred to in the Act which was introduced this time last year to create Irish Water. A solicitor whose company provided advice on water services and water regulation for water companies was appointed to the board of Irish Water. He resigned his position, perhaps because there might have been a perceived conflict of interest. I am not suggesting for one moment that there was a conflict of interest, but it is very important that we address the issue because, to put it mildly, the public does not have a huge amount of confidence in Irish Water.

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