Report of €280,000 water commission due at end of month

The chairman of the expert commission on water will receive €7,500 for his work while commission members are to receive €3,000 each, the Dáil has heard.

The total budget for the group’s work was €280,000, most of which was the cost of providing staff, including a senior researcher, a researcher and administration support, Minister for Local Government Simon Coveney said.

He told Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin that the Expert Commission on Domestic Public Water Services is expected to make its report available to the new special Oireachtas committee on water at the end of November.

“That is the timetable we are planning for,” the Minister said of the commission which is examining the options for a sustainable water services model.

Mr Ó Broin claimed €7,500 for the chair of the commission for three months’ work was more than the €9,000 annual fee for Oireachtas committee chairs.

However, Mr Coveney said the commission would have worked for five months. He also said they tried to keep costs to a sensible level, while ensuring the work was done as professionally as possible.

Quality people

Speaking during Dáil question time, the Minister said “the people we have asked to serve on it are knowledgeable, successful and busy individuals”. He said about half of them were not Irish.

“They are all experts in their fields and if we want to get good quality people, the least we can do is cover the cost of their turning up for meetings.”

He said they were talking about a €5 billion investment programme for Irish Water over the coming few years. “It makes sense to spend a little money to ensure we give the process the best possible opportunity of creating some political consensus around this divisive issue.”

Mr Coveney said there had been agreement in principle that there would be 20 Oireachtas representatives on the water committee, including five Government TDs, four Fianna Fáil TDs, two Sinn Féin TDs and five others, one from each of the smaller groups. Four Senators will be included, one from Fianna Fáil, one from Fine Gael and two others.

He said many would have preferred a smaller group “but I was very anxious that nobody would be excluded”.

The committee is expected to be established next week. “Whether it is formally set up next week or the week after, it will still happen well in advance of the report coming out,” Mr Coveney said.

“I believe the report should go directly from the expert commission to the new committee in order than it can get on with its work and that it is not seen as being ‘handled’ by Government in the period between the finalising of the report and it going to committee.”