Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Is mór an onóir dom bheith anseo arís chun an t-ábhar tábhachtach seo - uisce a sholáthar do gach cuid den tír - agus na ceisteanna práinneacha a bhaineann leis sin a phlé. Is rud maith é gur féidir linn tosú ar maidin ceisteanna a freagairt ó dhaoine agus go dtiocfaimid ar ais go luath chun an clár a bheidh á scaipeadh againn a scrúdú ionas go mbeidh gach duine sásta íoc as an uisce. Chun sin a chur chun cinn, caithfidh díospóireacht leathan a bheith againn.

It is important that I am here again today to talk about Irish Water and the future it will play in the economy and our community. One of the big issues with regard to water is how we rationalise - with the establishment of Irish Water - all of the services of the different local authorities. We aim to work with everybody concerned to ensure that the process is as easy as possible and to have the consent of as many people as possible.

The vision for Irish Water has been expressed in a Bord Gáis vision statement and I heartily agree with it. Bord Gáis will be the company responsible and accountable for Irish Water. Our objective is to deliver sustainable high quality and efficient water and wastewater services for the benefit of all citizens. In order to do that the following business objectives are required. Irish Water must be focused on building consumer confidence and meeting customer needs. It will build on and use the experience and expertise of local authorities, the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and other bodies in addition to the utility experience of Bord Gáis within a professional and competent working environment.

Irish Water will be accountable and must be seen to act with social responsibility. In that context, it is important that I am accountable and I shall continue to be accountable. I can tell the Leader that I am happy to come here, with reasonable notice, to debate and discuss all of these issues because they are fundamental to the future of the country and its economy.

How we do that in the most accountable and transparent way is an important task and I am confident the Seanad will assist me with my role in that regard. Irish Water will have an efficiency focus, harnessing the scale that will deliver efficiencies that were not possible previously. It will utilise Bord Gáis's international's financing capabilities to enable major capital expenditure to be performed at least cost. We will deliver a company with a solid governance structure working with 34 separate water service authorities to deliver exemplary customer services. Irish Water will continuously engage with the public to set out and explain the objectives and benefits of reform. That is the task of Irish Water. As Minister of State in the Department, it is my task to deliver it.

Ensuring that we have a modern, adequately resourced water services sector that will manage and deliver critical infrastructure is a key priority for the Government. The programme for Government provides for progressive and considered structural reforms of the water services sector in Ireland. While we are fortunate to have had resources to invest in the water sector in the past decade, steady State investment is required to deal with the requirements of the water framework directive and to support economic recovery by ensuring we meet the requirements of sectors with the capacity to develop and create employment. Meeting these challenges is not just about capital investment, it is also about the governance of the water sector, the most efficient form of delivery of services and ultimately ensuring that a quality service is delivered to all customers.

There are essentially three inter-related components to the Government's plan. These are to establish Irish Wateras an independent State-owned company within the Bord Gáis group; to introduce a sustainable funding model to support much needed investment in the sector, in line with the commitment in the programme for Government and the memorandum of understanding with the EU-IMF-ECB, which will include the introduction of water charges for domestic users; and to establish an independent economic regulator for water services, a function being assigned to the Commission for Energy Regulation, CER. These reforms involve fundamental change in how the delivery and funding of the water sector is organised and are necessary to equip the sector to meet the challenges of the future. These challenges include the need for investment in water and wastewater infrastructure to support economic recovery, enterprise development and job creation and to ensure that we comply with all statutory environmental and public health requirements.

The approach to building a new and sustainable model must be accompanied by organisational change and underpinned by the appropriate policy and legal framework. Work is now focused on finalising an implementation strategy for the establishment of Irish Water which will provide the platform for dealing with a broad range of implementation issues during the transitional phase. The implementation strategy is being developed in collaboration with other relevant Departments, local authorities, Bord Gáis and NewERA. Once finalised, the implementation strategy will provide the basis for comprehensive public communications on the reform programme, outlining the next steps. I hope that we will have the implementation strategy in place before Christmas. I will be happy to come back to the Seanad to go through the strategy in detail with Members or to attend any Oireachtas committee and to debate the issue in the Dáil. This will only work if we can sell the message to everyone. It is our job and the job of Irish Water to communicate fundamental issues of change for all of us. The communications strategy used by Irish Water will be a core and essential part of making the public case for change.

The strategy will focus on maintaining the delivery of a critical public service during and following a restructuring process, and is therefore premised on a phased rather than a big bang approach. This will involve the establishment of programme management structures in 2012 to manage the transition process; the establishment of Irish Water on an interim basis later this year and under its own statute in mid-2013 at which stage Irish Water would acquire statutory responsibility for water services; and local authorities acting as agents of Irish Water for water services operations, based on service level agreements, for a considerable period.

Some of the critical challenges facing the sector were well articulated by the excellent and incisive report on water provision published by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment, Transport, Culture and the Gaeltacht published in June this year. It has informed the debate for me and within the Department. The report highlighted that water provision in Ireland is at a critical stage and failure to take action will have significant societal and environmental consequences. The recommendations of the committee will be taken on board to the greatest extent possible in the roll-out of the reform programme. I will return to the committee at the appropriate stage to go through the issues with members.

The legislative provisions to establish Irish Water on an interim basis and to assign regulatory functions for water services to the CER will be brought before the Houses of the Oireachtas in this session, with the comprehensive Bill to establish Irish Water likely to be published in 2013. There is a range of important aspects regarding the establishment of Irish Water which will have to be taken into consideration in drafting this Bill such as the governance and accountability of the new utility, which is absolutely critical, reflecting the intention of the Government that Irish Water will be publically owned. The legislation will address the legal name of the organisation. Tá a lán daoine tar éis scríobh chugam mar gheall ar an ainm a bhéas ar Uisce Éireann. Tá mise ag moladh go trom go mbeidh ainm Gaeilge ar an mbord. It is important that the new organisation will have a strong Irish identity and that the name will be as Gaeilge.

The legal establishment of the economic regulator will be an important step in the process of ensuring that water charges for domestic consumers will be introduced in a way that is fair and equitable. The primary and critical role of the regulator will be to act for and on behalf of the consumer. That is an important point to make. The setting of water charges by the regulator must take account of a number of factors, among them the capital and operational efficiencies that Irish Water should be expected to achieve, including through investment in leakage reduction - that is an important point if we do not address the significant issue of unaccounted for water. In some counties it can be as high as 60%, compared to Dublin where it is approximately 28%, which indicates an efficient service. We must address the issue of leakage and unaccounted for water; the future investment requirements in water and wastewater infrastructure - those who have read the EPA report on wastewater issues are aware that significant improvements must be made in a number of locations to deal with wastewater treatment and to improve capacity and it is important that investment is provided for the purpose; the level of continued Exchequer funding; the approach to implementation of the free allowance; and the support measures targeted at groups with medical need or affordability problems to avoid issues of water poverty.

One of the benefits of augmenting the water supply in the greater Dublin area will be the new centre in the midlands which will accommodate 1,000 acres of water. It will provide a reservoir of water for the greater Dublin area but it will also be a massive boost to the local economy of the midlands in terms of recreation and amenity. That will be a flagship project.

The Government believes that charging based on usage is the fairest way to charge households for water. The proposed reforms represent a major change with significant implications for local government, local authority staff, the water industry in this country and its many stakeholders. We are committed to ensuring that this change is managed well. The skills within the Bord Gáis group will be paired with the water and wastewater expertise in local authorities to build the new organisation. The service level agreements to be put in place between Irish Water and local authorities will ensure a smooth transition to the new model and guard against the loss of local expertise. It will also mean that the majority of local authority staff working in the water area will remain in the direct employment of local authorities for a considerable period, with the potential for some service level agreements to remain in place beyond the transition period ending in 2017.

Building from engagement to date with the ICTU, specific structures have been put in place to facilitate engagement with the unions and staff concerning the roll-out of the implementation stage. A joint union-management group has been established, with an independent chairperson, to provide a mechanism for regular structured dialogue, consultation and engagement on issues arising from the implementation strategy. That is a core issue which is being dealt with. The structures are in place to ensure a constructive and structured dialogue. I stress that unless we address key organisational and funding issues for the water sector we will constrain our capacity to continue to exploit this natural advantage, to attract foreign direct investment and high-end employment, and to meet the needs and demands of our existing businesses and communities for high quality water and security of supply.

Irish Water will focus on building consumer confidence and meeting customer needs. It will build upon and use the expertise of the Department, local authorities and Bord Gáis to deliver sustainable, high quality and efficient water and waste water services for the benefit of the citizens of Ireland, and, in so doing, will be accountable and act with social responsibility. The implementation strategy for Irish Water, which should be finalised in the coming weeks, will outline the next steps and the key milestones to be achieved to deliver on this ambitious programme of reform.

I look forward to hearing the views of Senators and commenting on them. I assure them it is my intention to continue to return to this House at their invitation and go through all issues as they arise for Members.