CSO plans to review Eurostat ruling on Irish Water

Jennifer Banim, assistant director general with responsibility for economic statistics at the CSO, said the agency would seek to understand and review the decision to keep Irish Water on the Government’s balance sheet.

She was speaking at a press conference yesterday after Eurostat — the arbiter of accounting for governments across the EU — officially posted itsruling refusing to reclassify Irish Water as a private company.

Ms Banim said the CSO had interpreted existing guidelines to arrive at its submission to Eurostat that Irish Water was not a publicly controlled entity.

The Government has long argued that by winning Eurostat approval toreclassify the body as being outside the control of Government, it would help Irish Water tap private investments from debt markets to refurbish the country’s creaking fresh water pipelines and sewerage treatment plants.

It conceded this week that Eurostat had ruled against it.

Asked whether the CSO was concerned about being dragged into a political row, Ms Banim said the agency is independent of Government. It makes decisions about the classification of public entities all the time, “in a completely independent way”. She said the CSO does not seek advice from government departments but it helps them interpret Eurostat rules.

She said the Eurostat decision was a long, complicated ruling. Its effect is that Irish Water remains on the Government balance sheet.

Classifications “are not set in stone” and public bodies regularly move in and out of the public sector. The CSO will review the decision and again seek to make the case to Eurostat for Irish Water to be considered a private body, next year.

She said Eurostat does not only look at the so-called market test rule to determine whether any entity is in or out of Government. Eurostat gives as much emphasis in its decisions to whether the entity is autonomous of Government control.

Ms Banim said that new utilities such as Irish Water provide greater uncertainty than most others. The CSO in its submission to Eurostat used existing rules. It will now work with task groups to understand the decision-making behind the Eurostatruling, she said.