Housing Committee to meet with Irish Water on its proposed move to a single utility by 2021

The meeting will focus on Irish Water’s proposed move to a single utility by 2021 and the future delivery of water and sanitation services.

Session A: [Officials from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and Representatives from Irish Water and Ervia]; and

Session B: [Representatives from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions]

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Committee Chair, Maria Bailey TD said today, “In a bid to deliver better services to customers, Irish Water plans to develop a Water Industry Operating Framework in order to facilitate the delivery of water services under the single utility model. It is hoped that the single utility model will deliver a more efficient and consistent level of service, but the Committee still has a number of issues it wishes to address with witnesses tomorrow. These include concerns over the employment status of local authority staff working under so-called service level agreements (SLAs) and the challenges that moving to a single utility by 2021 will involve. The plans are still in the early stages, so the Committee welcomes this opportunity to engage with Irish Water on its plans and with ICTU on staffing concerns”