The Framework for future delivery of Water Services (June 2022) was identified following a comprehensive process of engagement with unions under the aegis of the Workplace Relations Commission and enables the integration of public water services into Uisce Éireann's organisational structure, as envisaged in the Government’s Policy Paper on Water Sector Transformation (February, 2021).
The Framework will impact on around 3,200 staff currently serving in the local government service. Any transfers of staff to become permanent employees of Uisce Éireann will be on an entirely voluntary basis.
In line with the Framework, water services staff who choose not to transfer to Uisce Éireann will remain in the direct employment of their current local authority maintaining their current terms and conditions of employment. They may continue to work in water services, under the direction of Uisce Éireann, until 31 December 2026. Local authorities will no longer have any involvement in the direct provision of water services to the public beyond that date.
Further opportunities for staff who do not seek to transfer to Uisce Éireann will be identified during the transition period, including reassignment, redeployment, upskilling and training programmes.
A Voluntary Redundancy scheme will also be made available under the Framework to eligible local authority water services staff members.
I have every confidence that the Framework document is the right way forward for all the parties to the transformation process. For workers, in particular its sets out the options that will become available generally, and empowers each worker to decide voluntarily on the option which is best suited to their own individual needs.
My role as Minister does not extend to operational staffing and human resource decisions at local authority level which is a matter for the Chief Executive Officer of each local authority and their senior management teams.
For my part, I see the commitments given to existing water services staff seeking to remain as local authority employees as intrinsic to the overall Framework and I wish to see these commitments honoured in full and progressed proactively in every reasonable and appropriate way. The Department and I will continue to work collaboratively with all the parties to the Framework to ensure that it is implemented in a fair and even-handed manner for all concerned.
