Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I am answering on behalf of the Minister for housing, who has responsibility for water and other things. The Deputy is quite right. Uisce Éireann's annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2023 were laid before the Houses at the end of June 2024. The year 2023 is the first year that Uisce Éireann has been audited, both by its commercial auditor, Deloitte, and the Comptroller and Auditor General. Those new accountability arrangements were provided for in the Water Services Act 2013, as amended. What is very interesting and important is the Minister expects that the public accounts committee, which is the body, working with the Comptroller and Auditor General, that oversees public spending and value for money in that spending for the State, will invite the chief executive officer and the chairperson of Uisce Éireann to give evidence, as is often the case with public bodies, on Uisce Éireann's financial statements in accordance with the statutory provisions in that regard.

Uisce Éireann, the national authority for water services, is a stand-alone publicly owned regulated utility. It was established to operate in a commercially viable manner. It is geared towards making a profit, notwithstanding Uisce Éireann's funding model. However, the profit generated by Uisce Éireann reflects the idea of a regulatory model that provides for a return on capital invested, which is then applied by Uisce Éireann to fund further water and wastewater infrastructure investment. The Deputy highlighted a number of different examples. I will mention Dún Laoghaire, which requires significant capital investment to upgrade its water services. The model is one of trying to generate a profit to further invest in water services.

Uisce Éireann's governing legislation provides for the recruitment of its staff on terms and conditions to be determined by Uisce Éireann. It is not a public service body and its employees are not covered by the definition of public servant. Uisce Éireann is statutorily obliged to have regard to Government policy on the remuneration and conditions of employment of its staff. Government policy on the remuneration and conditions of employment of staff is set out in the code of practice for the governance of State bodies. As a commercial State body, Uisce Éireann is obviously subject to that code.

The Minister does not have a role in setting or agreeing general rates of pay in Uisce Éireann. The only exception to that relates to the remuneration of the chief executive officer. Again, that is provided for in primary legislation, which is obviously subject to the opinions of the House. As such, the matters raised by the Deputy on bonus payments to Uisce Éireann's staff, as well as any other spend in Uisce Éireann, are operational matters for the company. The Minister does not have any function in that regard. However, like everything else, it will be open to the public accounts committee to consider Uisce Éireann's financial statements, when Uisce Éireann representatives give evidence to it in due course. That is of course a matter for the public accounts committee.

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