Taoiseach silent on FF claim that senior Irish Water personnel have local authority pensions

That Taoiseach declined to respond to a claim by Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin that former local authority employees with pensions had joined Irish Water at a senior level and were in line for bonuses.

Enda Kenny said he had asked Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan, in the interests of transparency and accountability, to have Irish Water chief executive John Tierney provide him with the full information about the criteria that applied in the company. He added that all the information available to the chief executive should be put in the public domain.

“There is nothing to hide here,” he said.

Mr Martin said a significant number of senior staff in Irish Water had been recruited from local authorities, Bord Gáis and the Department of the Environment. "Can you confirm, Taoiseach, that such staff received generous lump sums on retirement and pensions before moving on to Irish Water?" he asked.

Bonus culture

When Mr Kenny did not refer directly to the issue in his reply, Mr Martin said he found the Taoiseach’s response incredible, adding that the bonus culture was back.

“I asked the Taoiseach a question about senior managers who came from local authorities to Irish Water,” said Mr Martin. “Can he confirm such managers have received a lump sum on retirement, have generous pension arrangements and have moved seamlessly into senior level positions at Irish Water and will enjoy these bonuses ?”

Mr Kenny said those who were employees of local authorities were subject to the Haddington Road agreement and were part of the discussions and negotiations.

“I do not understand what that has to do with it,” Mr Martin said.

Bank guarantee

Mr Kenny said he distinctly remembered a Fianna Fail-led administration paying €7 million

to a major financial company in respect of the bank guarantee.

“Deputy Martin said he should not have done what he did . . . yet that was paid for three days’ work,” he added.

Mr Kenny said the current situation was that 18,000 people on public water supplies must either boil water or have a restriction in place.

“Can we continue with that?” he added.

He said the Environmental Protection Agency had determined that there must be remedial action on supplies where there were risks. This covered almost a million people, 16 per cent of supply, including some of the very large supply areas such as parts of Dublin city and Cork city supplies. In Dublin there were serious supply constraints as daily demand was 96 per cent of supply.

He said Irish Water was a new utility to provide a facility for consumers, businesses and future development with high standards, efficiency in terms of leaks, and delivery and capacity for the future.