Regional office for new Irish Water setting up in Mullingar

 

Mullingar has been named as one of the locations for the eight regional offices of Irish Water.

Between 18 and 32 staff will be employed at each office, and customers will begin receiving water bills from January of 2015, the Minister for the Environment, Community & Local Government, Phil Hogan TD, has announced.

“They don’t know yet if it will be a new building or if the offices will be located in an existing premises,” a spokesperson for the Department told the Westmeath Examiner.

The Mullingar office is to service the eastern/midlands region, and the role of the regional offices is to be to support the provision of water and wastewater services, and to carry out work associated with operations and asset management.

The employees of Irish Water are to be drawn from local authorities, the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Bord Gáis and through an open recruitment process.

The overall staff will also include 400 jobs at Irish Water’s customer contact centre in Cork.

According to Minister Hogan, a variety of roles will be available in the regional offices including operation and maintenance, capital planning and HSQE (Health Safety Quality & Environment). Further information on these roles will be available in due course on Irish Water’s website www.water.ie, which will be launched on Friday.

Announcing that there are still 17 months to go before bills start issuing, Minister Hogan said that this was on foot of an agreement with the Troika.  However, customers’ first bill will be for their water usage in the final three months of next year.

Minister Hogan continued:  “My intention is that as part of a range of conservation measures to be put in place, that where leakage is found through the water meter installation programme on the customer side, a ‘first fix free’ or equivalent support scheme would be provided. I will announce final details on this shortly.”

 

“We intend that households will be provided with a free allowance and that there will be specific supports for those with medical conditions that necessitate a high level of water use and those with affordability issues. No decision has yet been taken to the proposed approach to the free allowance or to these supports. Affordability issues will be addressed, in consultation with the Regulator, Irish Water and other stakeholders. The agreed approach to affordability issues will then be reflected in the charging structure established by the Regulator, which will be the subject of public consultation early next year.