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A BALLOT FOR industrial action of SIPTU members employed in local authority water services is due to get underway in the coming weeks, as workers ask for consultation on the transfer of services to Irish Water.
Meetings of 2,500 inspectors, network staff, plumbers and caretakers have been taking place across the country following a decision by the Department of the Environment to begin transferring water service assets and job roles to Bord Gáis and sub-contractor companies, according to SIPTU.
In April Fianna Fáil raised concerns about the jobs of thousands of people currently employed in water services, following the announcement of the establishment of a new State body called Irish Water.
The government said at the time that possible staff reductions will be a matter for Irish Water, which will be an independent, State-owned subsidiary of Bord Gáis. Public Expenditure minister Brendan Howlin has described Irish Water as the biggest State company since the ESB was founded, and said that it was being established under Bord Gáis because of the company’s experience in the operation of a metered energy system.
SIPTU sector organiser Michael Wall says that no discussions or consultations have taken place about the transfer of assets and work, and that workers have been given “no assurances concerning future terms and conditions of employment”.
A Bord Gáis spokesperson has told TheJournal.ie that it has been engaging with the Department of Environment and others in relation to developing an implementation plan.
The spokesperson estimated that it would take approximately 12 weeks from the announcement of the establishment of Irish Water in mid April to develop such a plan.
Bord Gáis said that there are a lot of issues to be looked at to get to the stage before a detailed map of how to proceed can be produced.
The government has previously said that it will be a “considerable period of time” before agency for water services is transferred from local authorities to Irish Water. However it says that it will “ultimately be a matter for Irish Water to determine the staffing and skills required for the new organisation”.
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Seperating out our water supply into a specific company, “Irish Water” is one step closer to privatising our water supply!
A few years time,”Irish Water” will be a “state asset” to be sold off! Shameful
In the same way Northern Ireland Water has been privatised?… Hang on a sec… it hasn’t!!
In a time with ALL the government talk of selling “non-strategic” state assets…The placing of Irish water in a seperate “Irish Water” Company was a VERY strategic plan!!
I’d tell you to “wait and see it happen”…but it’s NOT something I want to see happen at all!!
Government’s repeated talk of the sale if state assets points very much to the eventual privatisation of “Irish Water”.
I work in the water works here’s one example of contract work u can look forward to we dug a stop cock and found that the contract workers used dirty car hose as part of there service.
Sounds like the local authority workers are panicking! This might be the end of the handy numbers they’ve enjoyed for the last forever! I’m sure most of them will be reemployed by the new water company, however it seems they might have to actually start doing a bit of work! Isn’t that the real issue???
Do people not realise how important water is to everyone. Without it every living thing on earth would die. I think Water Charges are a brilliant idea. Maybe people will stop wasting it on stupid things.
Exactly! The necessity of water to EVERYONE, and the gov are going to CHARGE for it!!
And this charge is NOT to improve it’s supply,or quality…it’s a mechanism to get money from the people to pay off debt!…PRIVATE bank debt!!
…Just not right!
If you have your own well, or a bucket in your garden, you can have all the free water you want David.
If however you want fluoridated, clean and plentiful water transported directly directly to your tap, you’re gonna have to start paying a small fee for it.
Call me crazy but i also think the fee will have a similar effect as the plastic bag charge. We might actually start valuing the environmental cost once we start paying for it.
Plastic bags were free! Water supply us CURRENTLY funded CENTRALLY via taxation! If they want 2introduce a water charge,why not reduce a different tax that is no longer funding the water supply!!
Ridiculous, we have huge amounts of rainfall in this country.
Build more reservoirs anyone???
You can build as many reservoirs as you want but the water coming from them will still need to go through a number of processing steps, all the piping and all that, not to mention the quality checks that are done regularly to ensure the safety of the water…
All of this will need to be paid for and general taxes just don’t cover it any more…
for example john? u should advise all the garages round the country where they use car wash…
i wont be paying for water either
If people think the privatisation of water will lead to better services just look at Britain where the service has got progressively worse since it happened there. Just another neoliberal agenda to seize public assets and turn them into private assets.
People should boycott all bord Gais services in protest at their involvement in the water tax/charges.
What about the Croke park agreement? No ind action.
Are they going to reduce taxes on other expenses when this comes out…all I see is cost of living going up and wages staying the same or going down??….how is this fair?
have your say