Union rejects claims on Irish Water

One of the country’s largest public sector unions has rejected suggestions that transferring local authority staff to Irish Water or making them redundant would have had zero cost and also questioned the ESRI’s assertion that 1,700 staff could run the country’s water services.

In a blog published yesterday, Impact’s head of communications Bernard Harbor, said not only had ESRI economist John Fitzgerald, failed to substantiate the 1,700 figure, but it had been reported without seeking an explanation for how it was reached.

“The question was only put to Professor FitzGerald after a trade union analyst raised it on RTÉ’s Prime Time, over 12 hours after the story broke,” Mr Harbor wrote.