Concerns over ‘sweetheart deal’ for workers

Concerns have been raised that local authority staff will receive a “sweetheart deal” in their transfer to Irish Water at a wasted cost of €2bn for taxpayers.

While some ministers yesterday backed the transfer of thousands of council staff from around the country, one Labour minister said he was astonished at the deal.

Innovation Minister Sean Sherlock said yesterday that he was “uneasy” about the claim by a leading economist that Irish Water would be forced to employ double the staff it needs, which could add an extra €65 a year to the average household water bill.

The Cork East TD also said that the coalition needed to address any perception a “sweetheart deal” was done with the country’s local authorities in the setting-up of the public utility.

Mr Sherlock’s comments contrasted to those of senior ministers and Taoiseach Enda Kenny, who insisted there would be huge savings in the long run under Irish Water.

ESRI economist John FitzGerald earlier said that Irish Water’s hands “had been tied” with councils and it would take them at least a decade to get rid of excess staff.

His research showed the company would take on more than 4,000 staff despite some reports saying it only needed 1,700. This would cost €2bn extra, said Mr FitzGerald, suggesting staff reductions could be done quicker.

“It’s kind of unfortunate because in the public sector we could do with a few more nurses, a few more doctors, a few more teachers, probably a few more gardaí. And we have too many people, not at the moment, but we will have too many people in the water area.

“It doesn’t seem efficient, if we’re short of resources somewhere else, we can’t reallocate resources which will not be doing much for us.

“The point is Irish Water should chose the experts it needs, it shouldn’t be who people want to bill it on,” he told RTÉ radio.

Irish Water said: “Staff numbers will fall and this will be due to a number of factors, including natural attrition and voluntary redundancies introduced over time.”

However, the company could not say when any redundancy package would kick in. It said it was not aware of the ESRI research model and, therefore, could not comment on their figures.

Environment Minister Phil Hogan’s office admitted that his department legislated for the need for service level agreements, which then allowed local authorities negotiate on the transfer of staff.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny yesterday denied that users would pay more because of staff numbers. Jobs Minister Richard Bruton and Transport Minister Leo Varadkar both said there would be savings in the long term.

However, Social Protection Minister Joan Burton said Ireland needed “a cost-effective Irish Water not a gold- plated Irish Water”.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan said staff numbers would reduce when the metering of homes had finished, which Irish Water says will be by the end of 2016. Unions sources also insisted that numbers could be reduced once current pay and work deal expire then too.