Hogan defends handling of Irish Water costs after new memo

Former minister for the environment Phil Hogan has defended his handling of the manner in which he approved the start up of Irish Water.

Mr Hogan said he had signed off on the overall figure required to establish Irish Water, including hardware and software systems and a billing system, all of which were necessary for the state company to get off the ground.

"There was a robust examination of all the costs associated with the establishment of Irish Water by New Era and the National Development Finance Agency.

"The figures were then verified by the regulator and I ultimately approved them. All of the costs were approved and independently verified as necessary for the establishment of the new company," Mr Hogan told The Irish Times.

He was responding to a report on RTE's This Week programme which said Mr Hogan had been informed in December 2012 that Irish Water had allocated a sum of more than €40 million from which consultants, among others, would be paid.

On Thursday Mr Hogan will appear before a committee of the European Parliament for a hearing to approve his nomination as the new EU Agriculture Commissioner.

Documents obtained by RTE under a Freedom of Information request showed the allocation was approved by Mr Hogan more than a year before a controversy over Irish Water spending on consultancy services developed.

That controversy arose last January when the chief executive of Irish Water John Tierney told an Oireachtas committee that over €50 million had been spent on consultants.

The latest document to be released is a confidential memo written by a senior official in Mr Hogan’s Department. It included an assessment of progress being made late in 2012 on the setting up of Irish Water and the Government’s wider water reform programme.

The document refers to the provision of a sum of €43.5 million out of which Mr Hogan was informed external consultants as well as seconded staff from Bord Gais and local authorities would be paid.

The document pointed out that the bulk of the allocation would be spent on “new systems” including billing and call centre systems which were essential to get the new utility up and running and be in a position to charge customers for water.