Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that Uisce Éireann will now be audited. It is about time. Its 2023 accounts will probably not go to the public accounts committee until next year, however, as it will not produce its report until the end of 2024. I am putting on record the issues that are happening within Irish Water. The Minister of State made the point it is not a publicly owned regulated utility. That is quite correct. Workers will not go to Irish Water until it is because that is what they want. They are demanding that the referendum on the public ownership and management of water takes place so they can confidently go to Irish Water as public servants, keep their conditions and a good level of pay, and be guaranteed their jobs. Workers will not go to Irish Water otherwise.

I am putting the Minister of State on notice that in 2026, we will be in an even worse situation than we are now because those workers will go back to the local authorities to look for jobs rather than go to Irish Water. Irish Water does not have the experience of these water workers. They have a huge amount of experience. I talked to one lad yesterday who did two years on the ground, and then went to college for two years to get qualifications in the science of water and all that type of thing for the area he was in. He is seriously thinking of just staying with the local authority. The amount of experience we will lose can be imagined as Irish Water does not have the expertise and is not recruiting.

The reason the hospitality spend has increased, and I just noticed this from talking to water workers yesterday, is that Uisce Éireann is having publicity events or whatever. It is inviting local authority workers to these events and is desperately trying to encourage them to come across to Irish Water using celebrity sports people. There was one in Croke Park recently at which a sportsperson was on the invitation. Local authority workers were offered free meals and free drink to try to encourage them into Uisce Éireann. That is how desperate Irish Water has got. It cannot recruit that experience. I am putting the Government on notice that a serious issue is coming down the line on this.

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