This article is from page 14 of the 2013-07-30 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
CLARE County Council water service staff will continue to be employed by the Clare local authority while acting as an agent for Irish Water.
A spokesperson for the council said that there will be no redundancies among the 113 people employed in the department.
Last week the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government announced that the region’s Irish Water office will be based in Limerick, leaving questions as to what would happen the Clare council’s water section.
A spokesperson for the council confirmed to The Cla re People that Clare County Council staff will act as agents for the new national body, while remaining in the employment of the council under a 12-year service agreement between both parties.
Clare County Council will then be compensated for costs by Irish Water.
It is also expected that some staff from local authorities will move to Irish Water regional offices once the new jobs have been clarified, a process that could take up to 18 months.
Clare County Council will officially sign off as the county’s water utility provider in 2014, and the re- sponsibility passed to Irish Water.
The office servicing Clare will be based in Limerick City and will be one of three southern regional offices with two others being located in Mallow in County Cork and another in Kilkenny City.
Meanwhile the Clare water staff have begun a countywide survey of an estimated 31,000 domestic water connections in the county ahead of the Government’s introduction of water charges.
However a council official said the local authority staff would not require access to private property while conducting their assessment of water connections.