Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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1011. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the number of meetings he or officials from his Department had with a person (details supplied); the purpose of each of those meetings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41333/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Since 1 January 2014, Irish Water has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local levels. To manage the transition process a number of governance structures have been put in place by the Department which the Managing Director of Irish Water attends.

A Water Sector Reform Steering Group, representative of local authorities, Irish Water, NewERA, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and my Department, provid es high level oversight of the water sector reform agenda. More recently, the Department has engaged with Irish Water senior management through a Monitoring Group which considers issues such as strategic plannin g, the metering programme, the communications agenda, corporate governance and other k ey implementation issues. In the past twelve months there have been five meetings of the Steering Group and two Monitoring Group meetings.

Given the range of challenges involved in the establishment and operation of Irish Water there have been a number of meetings outside of these structures between Irish Water management , my officials and/or the Minister to deal wi th implementation issues as they arise. Since taking up office , I have met with the Managing Director on five occasions , which have included an introductory meeting and discussions on issues including Irish Water’s customer application process and communications /stakeholder engagement issues. My predecessor as Minister met with the Managing Director on eight occasions in the last year.

In the same period approximately forty meetings have taken place involving the Managing Director and senior officials from my Department. The issues discussed have included Irish Water’s Strategic Plan, the funding model, communications planning and a range of issues associated with the water reform implementation programme generally.