Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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418. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the provisions in legislation that permit board members of Irish Water to purchase shares in a personal capacity and the safeguards in place to protect the State's shareholding in the company. [10550/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Water Services Act 2013 provided for the establishment of Irish Water as a subsidiary of Bord Gáis Éireann (now Ervia), conforming to the conditions contained in the Act and registered under the Companies Acts. As Irish Water is a State owned company, the board members of Irish Water or Ervia cannot purchase shares in Irish Water.

Section 5 of the Water Services Act 2013, as amended by Section 46 of the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013, prohibits each of the shareholders of Irish Water – who are the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, the Minister for Finance and Ervia - from disposing of their shareholding in Irish Water and thus placed a statutory prohibition on the privatisation of Irish Water. To further strengthen this protection of the State’s ownership of the company, Section 2 of the Water Services Act 2014 provides that in the event of any proposal for legislation being brought forward at any future stage that would involve a change in the State ownership of Irish Water, the matter would have to be put to a plebiscite of the people.