Aim of €7m office to persuade authority staff to switch to Irish Water

A Government minister has expressed concern about a €7m office, set up to help persuade local authority expert staff to transfer across to Irish Water.

His comments came as a confidential document revealed the co-operation of local authorities was linked to assurances over jobs, pensions and work agreements.

Communications and Energy Minister Pat Rabbitte said there was pressure to get local authority staff to co-operate with the setting-up of the State’s new public utility, Irish Water.

The process was rushed due to a tight deadline set by the troika, claimed the minister, adding that Environment Minister Phil Hogan had then set up a body to oversee the transition.

Over €7m has since been spent on the body, called the Water Services Transition Office, it was confirmed. But Mr Rabbitte defended his Cabinet colleague’s actions, telling RTÉ: “He sat down a committee from the local authorities, some of them managers and former managers, and said ‘how in the name of God are we going to persuade local authorities to hand over water to this organisation?’.

“This transition arrangement was set up, whereby this committee was charged with ‘will we be able to induce the engineers to come across? Will the key people in the local authorities transfer to this new company’?”

Mr Rabbitte said that council staff also had conditions, contracts and pensions. “If they didn’t come across and there was a leak somewhere, these guys have it in their heads. It’s quite scary, the corporate knowledge is in their heads; these are the guys who have kept the system running.”

But Mr Rabbitte said he shared concerns that there was no contact for the €7m office, amid reports that the transition body had no website or phone number.

Meanwhile, a confidential document reveals the co-operation of council staff with Irish Water was linked to their jobs and pensions. The 2012 file, prepared by Irish Water, said local authorities had “strongly hinted” that their co-operation in relation to an inventory of the State’s water assets depended on resolving issues.

According to RTÉ’s This Week, the issues linked to co-operation included the transfer of substantial numbers of local authority staff to Irish Water; pensions for staff and compensation for councils losing water assets.

Mr Hogan’s spokesperson said county managers asked the transition office be set up and between two to three staff were seconded from each of the 34 authorities.