Results 481-500 of 1,054,888 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Máiría Cahill OR speaker:Catherine Murphy OR speaker:Fergus O'Dowd OR speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh OR speaker:Jim O'Callaghan) in 'Committee meetings'

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Will Mr. Gleeson give me a monetary figure for that? Will he also put it in terms of the number of litres lost from the system? Each litre comes with a treatment cost and an energy cost. Will he give me a ballpark figure of essentially how much money we are leaking into the ground because of the poor pipe network?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Is there not a way to account for the losses? Could Mr. Gleeson not even give me a ballpark figure?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Chair?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Catherine Murphy: The witnesses are very welcome. I have been looking for Uisce Éireann to come under the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General for some considerable time. It is very welcome that we have the 2023 audit. I completely agree with what was said about multi-annual funding. There must be absolute certainty about the future. We have a projected need for housing, for example, and...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Is that primarily Dublin city, with the old pipes, or does it go beyond that area?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Catherine Murphy: In the absence of a new water supply coming on board, this is an area that has high levels of growth and housing development. There is a reliance on reducing leakage to facilitate future housing development. How has that fallen? I know quite a lot about Kildare because it is the area I represent. In fact, it had a better than average rate, with a very active leak reduction system before...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Catherine Murphy: No. We have been told by Irish Water that it is urgent. I am using it as an example because it is an area I know. I will come back to Irish Water on this, but in fact the project was so chaotic that the county council stopped it. The work was being done by a contractor under the remit of Irish Water.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Catherine Murphy: It was not.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Catherine Murphy: To be honest, the local authority never stops a project. It was utterly critical of it. I do not want to dwell on an individual project but I do not understand why the two were not done at the same time to achieve value for money, especially where you have to open the road again to install another pipe in the future in what is a very high growth area and there is a demonstrated need. On...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Catherine Murphy: How does Mr. Gleeson plan for recruitment to the workforce?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Will Ms Attridge tell us what Uisce Éireann’s optimum number of staff is and how many staff it loses as well?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Catherine Murphy: What is the optimum number? What is the number the organisation needs to have?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Catherine Murphy: So Uisce Éireann is short, is it? Where is it short?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Will Mr. Gleeson supply to the committee a spreadsheet on workforce planning and where the organisation is losing people?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Catherine Murphy: The organisation has fewer people working now than it had earlier this year. Ms Attridge just told me that.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Ms Attridge is talking about the cohort again. It would be people within ten years of retirement and that kind of thing within the system because people transferred over. Will there be retirements of the people who transferred to the organisation?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Catherine Murphy: That is where the organisation is less likely to get transfers across.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)

Catherine Murphy: When it is fully transferred across, where will the people who are working within Irish Water be based? Are there physical buildings? Will they be within the local authority? If they are within the local authority, are offices rented from the local authority? What is the plan?