Results 13,421-13,440 of 14,706 for speaker:Phil Hogan

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Irish Water Establishment (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: Following the decision by the Government in December 2011 to establish Irish Water, on the basis of an independent assessment conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, my Department launched a public consultation process to inform development of the implementation strategy on the reform programme. Almost 300 submissions were received, including a submission from the ESRI. All of these were taken...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Irish Water Establishment (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: I am not surprised that Deputy Higgins disagrees with the manner in which we are setting up a semi-state company to deliver, efficiently and effectively, a service that is not being delivered effectively and efficiently through 34 local authorities. We are spending €1.2 billion of taxpayer's money - or working people's money, as Deputy Higgins would have it - to deliver this essential...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Irish Water Establishment (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: Water charges will be decided by the Government and Irish Water when it makes its submission to the Commission on Energy Regulation. The regulator will ultimately decide on what the level of water charges will be. The Deputy must have patience and he will get-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Irish Water Establishment (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: There was a commitment in the memorandum of understanding that we would introduce a property tax and water charges in 2013. We have the property tax but will not have water charges until 2015. The Deputy needs to get his history correct. I wish to thank the staff of local authorities who are in difficulty at the moment trying to manage supplies along the coastline of our country....

Other Questions: Irish Water Staff (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: I assure Deputy Clare Daly that local authority workers are not standing around doing nothing. The Government decided in December 2011, based on the recommendations of the independent assessment, to establish a public water utility company to take over the operational and capital delivery functions of local authorities in the water services area. The Government also decided the question of...

Other Questions: Irish Water Staff (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: First, there will be no privatisation of Irish Water unless the Deputy is going to support this in the future. I have no intention of bringing that proposition to the Government or the Oireachtas and I note it would require an Act of the Oireachtas to change the legislation passed in respect of this matter.

Other Questions: Irish Water Staff (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: The Deputy is welcome to the Chamber. The criteria used to assess the relative merits of an existing utility versus a greenfield operation meant the Government gave consideration to existing semi-State companies. In order to leverage savings and their capability, the Government considered Bord na Móna and Bord Gáis Energy on the grounds of certain criteria, including legal and...

Other Questions: Irish Water Staff (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: I do not know to what dogs the Deputy has been speaking.

Other Questions: Irish Water Staff (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: I do not know to what dogs the Deputy has been talking on the street, but I assure her that there will be no privatisation of water services by the Government. Although I do not know, perhaps she might support a future Government in that regard and may have something in mind. All I can do is to set out what is the current and the future position of the two parties in government on Irish...

Other Questions: Irish Water Establishment (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: I propose to answer Questions Nos. 90 and 455 together. I have no difficulty with providing any information and if there are documents such as a foundation document, I will make them available to the Deputy. The document to which I assume she is referring is the project initiation document - the starting process in the early days in the Department back in 2012 - which was compiled by Bord...

Other Questions: Irish Water Establishment (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: The Minister, Deputy Brendan Howlin, has dealt with the issues regarding freedom of information. We have put in place and set in train the necessary orders to ensure it will happen as quickly as possible. We have absolutely nothing to hide with regard to the establishment of Irish Water. It is a very difficult task to establish a new public water utility in the timeframe laid down by the...

Other Questions: Irish Water Establishment (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: Deputy Mick Wallace is very familiar with difficulties we had in the construction boom in pipes being put just under the surface of the ground, the lack of building controls and dealing with various other issues. We are trying to deal with those as well, and we will deal with them in respect of new building code regulations as well as investment in the first-leak policy.

Other Questions: Irish Water Establishment (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: The Deputy knows all about it.

Other Questions: Irish Water Establishment (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: What we are trying to do is deal with a huge legacy in regard to under-investment in water services, and we must do that under the constraints of a public capital programme, which will be a problem for the next few years whether we like it or not, but Dublin, and the east coast in particular, cannot wait that long for investment in water. Deputy Murphy should be aware that in the...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Water Charges Administration (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: The Programme for Government sets out a commitment for the introduction of water charges based on usage above a free allowance, on the basis that this is the fairest way to charge for water. Irish Water is implementing the national domestic water metering programme for households connected to public water supplies.  As the metering programme will still be under way when charges are...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Irish Water Staff (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: A fundamental underpinning of the water reform programme is to ensure that the skills and experience built up over many years in local authorities are put to best use for the long-term benefit of the customer and that there is no negative impact on service to customers during the transition. Irish Water is currently recruiting to build up the internal capabilities required within the...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Water Services Funding (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: My Department has no responsibility for, or role to play in, the management, maintenance or operation of water infrastructure. Since 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has profiled public water supplies to determine whether the supply needs to be replaced or upgraded, or operational practices improved to ensure that there are no risks to the supply of drinking water. Supplies...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Local Authority Staff (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: A voluntary redundancy scheme was offered to local authority staff in 2013 and by the end of March 2014 approximately 620 staff will have departed under the scheme. The number of staff provided for Water Services under the Service Level Agreements with Irish Water for 2014 is 4319.6 full time equivalents subject to alignment with the budgets notified by Irish Water to each local authority....

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Irish Water Administration (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 103 and 438 together . The Water Services Transition Office (WSTO) was established by the County and City Managers' Association to assist with the implementation of the water sector reform process. The role of the Transition Officer is to support the delivery of the water sector reform programme on behalf of the local government sector, by...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Building Regulations Amendments (4 Feb 2014)

Phil Hogan: The new Building Control Amendment Regulations will greatly strengthen the arrangements currently in place for the control of building activity by requiring greater accountability in relation to compliance with Building Regulations in the form of statutory certification of design and construction, lodgement of compliance documentation, mandatory inspections during construction and validation...