Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Garvey for bringing these questions to the House. It is one Commencement matter but I will try to address a number of points raised by the Senator. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has responsibility for the overall policy relating to water services and Irish Water but the Water Advisory Board is independently tasked under the Water Services Act 2017 with reviewing Irish Water's performance on a number of key measures. These include measures needed to improve the transparency, accountability and confidence relating to Irish Water and to report, on a quarterly basis, to an Oireachtas committee on the performance by Irish Water in the implementation of its business plan.

The Water Advisory Board submitted its third quarterly review report of 2021 to the Oireachtas on 16 November 2021 and I have a copy for the Senator. This report, which the Minister also received and is currently considering, has been published on the Water Advisory Board's website. The review is focused on a set of performance indicators selected to represent the activities of Irish Water against which conclusions and recommendations have been drawn. The Water Advisory Board report must be seen in the wider context of the significant institutional reform achieved over the past decade, which has seen Irish Water and local authorities making real progress working together since 2014 in delivering a unified and coherent approach to managing our public water systems nationwide.

Clearly, significant and complex challenges remain. With a view to building on these important institutional reforms, in February 2021 the Government published a policy paper entitled Irish Water - Towards a National, Publicly Owned, Regulated Water Services Utility setting out clearly the approach planned by the Government to proceed with the full integration of public water services within Irish Water's organisation structure. This will deliver a publicly owned, stand-alone, regulated, national water utility tasked with modernising and transforming the delivery of water services in Ireland.

In setting out its views and expectations on the next phase of the water sector transformation programme in this way, the Government is enabling water sector stakeholders, including water sector unions and workers and the management representatives of the local government sector and Irish Water, to engage together, facilitated by the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, to identify a framework for the future delivery of water services in keeping with the policy objectives set by the Government. The Government believes it will be possible to achieve a framework for the future delivery of water services which will be in keeping with the key concerns of all stakeholders.

It is the case that there has been significant progress made with that transfer with respect to local authority staff and Irish Water. Those conversations are ongoing but it is a critical part of delivering the single publicly owned utility with respect to Irish Water.

The Senator raised a number of points on water ownership and there is a commitment in the programme for Government to refer the issue of environment, including water, and its place in the Constitution to a relevant Oireachtas joint committee for consideration. That commitment is there, although a number of possible referendums are outlined in the programme for Government as well.

The policy paper on water sector transformation agreed by the Government further commits the Department of Housing, Heritage and Local Government to consult with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the local authority group of unions on the proposed referendum. There were concerns around that and the commitment is there as well. Engagement on this matter is under way and will continue in tandem with discussions on employment and staffing matters within the framework support of the WRC.

I will try to address the other points raised in my closing remarks.