Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for his congratulatory comments and I thank him for raising this very important issue.

The policy paper on water sector transformation, as published in 2021, set out the Government's vision for the development of water services in Ireland based on the full integration of water services under Uisce Éireann as a single national water services authority in public ownership. The objective is to deliver a world-class public water services authority that meets customer needs, operates in line with best practice, represents value for money and facilitates economic development in urban and rural locations.

The engagement with unions on a framework for future delivery of water services was concluded successfully at the Workplace Relations Commission last June. The framework now enables Uisce Éireann to work in conjunction with local authorities to complete the full integration of public water services into its own organisational structure over a four-year period from 2023 to 2026. Staff are hugely important in that integration. The preparations for the implementation of the framework are progressing well.

The Senator mentioned a specific public water supply in Poulavanogue and mentioned that his colleagues, councillors John Fitzgerald and Michael Murphy are working with him on this particular issue. I will give the up-to-date position. The Clonmel Poulavanogue public water supply is currently on the EPA's remedial action list for turbidity and cryptosporidium. It is a river stream source and the treatment consists of slow sand filters and chlorine disinfection. Due to the site location infrastructure, it is not possible to undertake the required upgrades to ensure treatment of the water treatment plant addresses the cryptosporidium risk. Prior to the installation of an automatic shutdown on the raw water in 2020, we had regular cryptosporidium detections. Treatment of the existing Poulavanogue sources was also ruled out on the basis that the sources do not have an adequate yield to meet the current demands as demonstrated during recent dry weather events and thus, if retained, would result in a risk of interruptions to supply for parts of Clonmel town. A new source of supply is required to ensure Uisce Éireann can meet the needs of existing customers while allowing for growth in the area.

The draft national water resources plan for the south east will set out the long-term strategy for Clonmel town and a number of smaller local supplies. In the short term, an interim plan to increase the abstraction at the existing Monroe well-field is proposed to deal with the needs of Clonmel town for the next ten or more years. The timeline for the completion of this project is 2026. The Mountain Road pipeline project, which commenced earlier this year, will address the risk of boil water notices and regular outages at the Poulavanogue water treatment plan.

Earlier this year, Uisce Éireann assumed responsibility for the direct recruitment of water services staff. A comprehensive engagement exercise is under way to communicate the framework details directly to existing staff and ensure all local authority water services workers fully understand the options available to them. One-to-one briefings will be made available to staff in the coming weeks. It is important to note that any transfer of staff to become permanent employees of Uisce Éireann will be on an entirely voluntary basis. The Government is, therefore, planning for the future in an orderly and well-managed way that ensures there will be no adverse impacts on the delivery of services to the business and domestic customers of Uisce Éireann. Ultimately the reforms that are under way, coupled with the ongoing increased levels of investment year on year in our water services, will ensure that citizens and businesses will enjoy a world-class water services system that they rightly expect and deserve, and of which we can all hope to be justifiably proud.

I will provide Senators with my full text but I wanted to deal with the Poulavanogue issue.