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Business leaders and policy makers debate the future of Irish water services

Ibec's October 2012 water conference set the stage for optimising the ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity to transfer water services from Local Authorities to Irish Water, a single, self-funding public utility. The following key themes emerged from the event.

A successful transition to Irish Water will rely heavily on achieving buy-in from relevant sections of Irish society, especially water users. This in turn is contingent on the ability to communicate key messages such as fairness, value for money and improved environmental performance.

Although non-domestic water prices are currently in line with those in the UK, significant upward pressures exist, partly driven by an urgent need for remedial investments. The CER faces a major task in collecting and verifying the data needed for effective economic regulation of the utility. In this regard, benchmarking the utility’s performance against international best practice may be a useful means of driving the improvements that are necessary.

A number of crucial decisions need to be taken by the Government before the end of 2012 in order for the regulator to be able to introduce supply tariffs (domestic and non-domestic) by 2014. Conversely, if meeting the milestones that have been agreed with the Troika results in decisions being without adequate analysis or consideration, there is a risk of being stuck with inflexible agency arrangements, inappropriate technologies and perverse incentives. IBEC and its members therefore welcome the opportunity to be involved in the on-going public debate.

The Irish business sector hopes to continue play a role in providing the resources and expertise required to upgrade and maintain our national water services. The potential benefits can be more fully realised if the contract purchasing arrangements are configured in a way that allows greater flexibility for incorporating technical innovations.

Copies of presentations and speeches can are attached.
Thursday, 26 September 2013