Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this matter with which I am dealing on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government.

The programme for Government and the memorandum of understanding with the European Union, the IMF and the European Central Bank, with which the Senator will be familiar, provide for the introduction of domestic water charges. The Government considers that charging based on usage is the fairest way to charge for water and it has, therefore, decided that water meters should be installed in households connected to public water supplies. International evidence has shown that where meters have been installed, significant reductions have been achieved in the level of consumption. This is also borne out by the water savings achieved with metering in the group water sector.

Irish Water will be responsible for the domestic water metering programme and the collection of water charges from households. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government estimates that approximately 1 million households could be metered initially. A pre-installation survey to provide further information on the scope of the metering programme is well under way. Regional management contractors are due to be appointed by Irish Water shortly, following a competitive public tendering process. The procurement process for the subcontractor panel was developed by the Department, in consultation with Bord Gáis Energy, to ensure small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, had an opportunity to compete for contracts. The tender criteria were developed to ensure subcontractors would have the capacity to carry out the scale of work involved to the necessary high standard. The approach taken for the subcontractor panel is consistent with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform's guidelines for facilitating SME participation in public procurement.

The procurement process for the subcontractor panel has now closed and following assessment of the applications received, a total of 159 subcontractors have been included in the panel. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government has provided the final panel for Irish Water. The list of the pre-qualified subcontractors will be provided by Irish Water for the regional management contractors. It is expected the successful regional management contractors will be utilising the resources of the pre-qualified subcontractors for the purposes of delivering the meter installation works. They may supplement this approach by applying their own resources or additional subcontractors.

The installation of meter boxes and domestic water meters will be rolled out nationally as quickly as possible. A social inclusion commitment will form part of the regional main contractor's contracts. It will include requirements that at least 10% of the people working on the metering programme be drawn from SMEs, 10% from the unemployment register and 5% be apprentices, graduates or school leavers.

The Water Services Act 2013 provided for the establishment of Irish Water as a subsidiary of the Bord Gáis Energy group and assigns the necessary powers to allow Irish Water, a public body, not a private body, to undertake the metering programme. The Act also assigns to the Commission for Energy Regulation the power to advise the Government on the development of a regulatory framework for water services. Further legislation will be published later this year to provide for the transfer of water services functions from the 34 county and city councils to Irish Water.