Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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158. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 711 of 5 November 2013, if he will outline in detail the number of staff who have been directly hired by Irish Water in 2012, 2013, and to date in 2014; the number that have directly transferred from local authorities; if he will provide a breakdown of the number of staff earning €70,000 or more, €80,000 or more, €90,000 or more, the number paid €100,000 or more, the number paid €125,000 or more and the number paid €150,000 or more; of all those staff the number who have provision for bonuses in their contracts, and specifically for each position that has bonuses as part of its employment contract, to outline the salary applicable and the amount of bonus as percentage of salary they are entitled to and the associated duties of that position, and in general the criteria that must be met to qualify for a bonus; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3386/14]

Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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162. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 714 of 5 November 2013, if he will outline in detail the number of staff that have transferred to Irish Water from local authorities; the number from other public sector positions; the number that now earn more than they did under their previous terms and conditions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3390/14]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 158 and 162 together.

The Water Services Act 2013 provided for the establishment of Irish Water as a subsidiary of Bórd Gáis Éireann to be formed and registered under the Companies Act.

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. The Water Services (No.2) Act 2013 transferred statutory responsibility for water services to Irish Water and provided for local authorities to act as agents for Irish Water, with this relationship being expressed through Service Level Agreements. The majority of the existing staff remain employees of local authorities working under such arrangements from 1 January 2014. As such, no staff transferred from local authorities or from other public sector positions to Irish Water.

Any employees of Irish Water who came from the local authority sector or from the public service sector immediately prior to taking up a post with Irish Water applied for advertised posts and were recruited through a competitive process.

Irish Water is currently recruiting to build up the internal capabilities required within the organisation and the number of staff employed is an operational matter for the organisation. It was agreed by the Steering Group for the Water Sector Reform programme that, to ensure skills within the sector were fully availed of in building up the new organisation, competitions for positions in asset management, capital delivery and operations would be restricted to staff in the partner organisations i.e. Bord Gáis Éireann, local authorities and my Department in the first instance. Open competitions are held for all other positions and details of these are available on Irish Water’s website .

Data supplied by Irish Water indicate that at present 310 staff appointments have been made in Irish Water. The breakdown of these staff in terms of their employment immediately before recruitment is as follows: 59 were recruited from Bord Gáis Éireann; 107 from Local Authorities; 5 from my Department and the balance, 139, were externally recruited.

I and my Department will not necessarily have access to details of expenditure and other organisational matters in relation to Irish Water. In this context, and to support and assist public representatives in their role, my Department has requested Irish Water, on behalf of myself and Minister O’Dowd, to take early action to ensure that public representatives are regularly briefed on matters pertaining to the organisation and operation of the utility. Irish Water is currently considering how best to support and respond to the Parliamentary and public representation needs of elected representatives at national and local level.

Pending the establishment of these arrangements, my Department requested the information sought in the questions from Irish Water in relation to salaries and I can indicate that the salaries of the 310 employees of Irish Water can be broken down as follows:

The employment terms and conditions for Irish Water staff are a matter for the company and I understand that these are in line with the arrangements applying with Bord Gáis Éireann. Bord Gáis has in place a competitive market based pay model. The model offers market based pay ranges for all employees which includes a pay at risk element called Performance Related Award (PRA). A pay freeze will remain in place until 2016 as this is a key element of reducing overall payroll costs within the Group.  As such, Irish Water does not pay increments or any form of automatic pay award; the pay model applied allows for part of salaries to be placed at risk and this element of pay is only earned subject to performance.

In this model, where an employee does not meet expectations they will not be eligible for a performance award and underperformance will be dealt with under the Irish Water Disciplinary Procedure and will lead to sanctions up to and including dismissal. Performance pay will be based on a structured performance review and requires company performance, business unit performance and individual performance metrics to have been met.

I also understand that no bonuses have been paid to Irish Water staff, but I have asked the company to set out the basis and content of the model as applied to Irish Water contracts of employment, including the criteria against which high performance will be evaluated and the kinds of targets (at company and division or grade levels) against which such performance may be bench-marked.

Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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159. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 712 of 5 November 2013, if he will outline in detail the number of staff in Irish Water that have been provided with a car; the level of management at which they receive a car; the type of car to which they are entitled; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3387/14]

Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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160. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the number of staff in Irish Water that have been provided with a credit, debit or charge card; if he will outline the spending limit for each issued card; if he will provide details of the person it was issued to and their responsibilities; the criteria for using these cards; if he will also provide in tabular form for each person the amount spent on each card in 2013, and in 2014 to date respectively; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3388/14]

Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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161. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 713 of 5 November 2013, if he will outline in detail the fringe benefits, other than salary, health insurance or other perks that staff in Irish Water received; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3389/14]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 159 to 161, inclusive, together.

The Water Services Act 2013 provided for the establishment of Irish Water as a subsidiary of Bord Gáis Éireann to be formed and registered under the Companies Act. In line with the Code of Practice for the corporate governance of State bodies, the determination of the remuneration of the senior management of commercial State bodies, with the exception of the Chief Executive, is a matter for the Board of the body and not one in which I have a statutory remit.

The Managing Director of Irish Water was appointed by the Board of Bord Gáis Éireann, and his remuneration package was approved by me, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and following consultation with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. The gross salary payable to the Managing Director of Irish Water is €200,000 per annum. In accordance with his approved Contract of Employment, the Managing Director of Irish Water is afforded the use of a company car (Honda CRV) on terms determined by the Company.

I and my Department will not necessarily have access to details of expenditure and other organisational matters in relation to the company. In this context, and to support and assist public representatives in their role, my Department has requested Irish Water, on behalf of myself and Minister O’Dowd, to take early action to ensure that public representatives are regularly briefed on matters pertaining to the organisation and operation of the utility. Irish Water is currently considering how best to support and respond to the Parliamentary and public representation needs of elected representatives at national and local level.

Pending the establishment of these arrangements, my Department requested the information sought in the questions from Irish Water and I can indicate that nine regional managers working on the domestic metering programme have been provided with leased cars on the basis that they are on-call and may be required to travel twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. The cars are 1.6 diesel engines and the models are: one Kia Optima, one Kia Sportage, two VW Passat, and five Ford Mondeos.

A car allowance of €10,500 is paid to twenty seven Senior Managers who are required to use their own cars in the course of their duties with Irish Water. This is a fully taxable non-pensionable allowance, subject to tax, PRSI and USC. This is in lieu of the payment of mileage expenses as would pertain in other circumstances, as the company views this as a more cost-effective option.

Irish Water has confirmed that while no member of staff has a debit or charge card, two credit cards have been issued for business use in Irish Water. These cards are for company purchases or costs on behalf of the business. The cards have been issued in the name of the Managing Director and the Head of Customer Operations. In 2013 approximately €10,000 was spent on each card. The only commitment to date in 2014 relates to an amount of €375. Irish Water is preparing a breakdown of the various payments, which they will directly issue to the Deputy.

The holder of the card does not approve the payment of the credit card bill, in other words, there is a further sign-off as part of the approvals process. All charges to the credit card must be accompanied by supporting documentation

Irish Water provides health insurance of VHI Plan C or equivalent for nine of its Senior Executives, no other staff benefits are in place.