Irish Water
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| Statutory Corporation | |
| Industry | Water industry |
| Founded | 27 July 2013 (registered as a company) |
| Headquarters | Dublin, Ireland |
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Key people
|
Jerry Grant (Managing Director) |
| Website | water |
Irish Water Ltd. (Irish: Uisce Éireann) is a water utility company in Ireland. The company was created by the Irish Government through the Water Services Act (2013), which formally created Irish Water as a subsidiary of Bord Gáis, to provide "safe, clean and affordable water and waste water services" to water users in Ireland. Water and wastewater services were previously provided by local authorities in Ireland.
Public concerns on operational, documentation, company responsiveness, data security, financial and perceived wasteful spending issues were highlighted throughout the initial months of the subsidiary's operations. Together with privatisation fears, these public concerns resulted in a significant volume of unreturned application forms, large nationwide protests and pressure on company management and the government during 2014. In 2015, the scale of non-payment issues, and an unfavourable assessment of the viability of the organisation as an independent entity further increased attention and calls by some to dissolve the organisation. The viability of the utility was also a feature ahead of the 2016 general election, and post-election discussions on government formation.
Irish Water is accountable to two regulatory bodies, the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) which is the economic regulator for the water industry, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which is the environmental regulator.
Water supplies in Ireland are governed by the Water Services Acts of 2007 to 2014. Until 2015, this legislation provided for the provision of water and wastewater services by local authorities, with domestic usage funded through central taxation, and non-domestic usage funded via local authority rates. Under terms of a 2010 Economic Adjustment (Bailout) Programme, the then government agreed to change this arrangement. From 2015, legislation came into force such that a new utility company, Irish Water, became responsible for providing water and wastewater services, with the intention that the company would be funded through direct billing. The new company was set up as a subsidiary of an existing semi-state corporation, Bord Gáis (Ervia). The newly created company effectively took on the existing local authority employees and water management facilities, pipes and infrastructure. Operationally, Irish Water delegates some work, for example water meter installation and customer support, to sub-contractors.
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