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The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Eoghan Murphy T.D., today (21 May 2018) launched the Water Services Policy Statement 2018-2025, following its approval by Government last week.
This is the first Water Services Policy Statement prepared under the reformed Water Services Acts. The Policy Statement gives clear direction to strategic planning and decision making on water and wastewater services in Ireland. It is an integral element of the broader reforms following from the cross-party political deliberations on water policy that took place in 2016 and 2017 which have seen the ending of domestic water charges and confirmation of Irish Water as a publicly-owned national water services authority.
Launching the Policy Statement, Minister Murphy said:
“The Government’s vision for water services – whether supplied by Irish Water and their local authority partners or otherwise under the Rural Water Programme - is clear. Our aim is to deliver and develop water and wastewater services in line with the needs and expectations of citizens and users; in compliance with legal obligations; in a fair and cost-effective manner, and in keeping with the principles of social, economic and environmental sustainability.”
The purpose of the Policy Statement is to clarify - for Irish Water and for others - the Government's expectations on key aspects of water and wastewater services delivery, by:
Defining a set of principles to guide water services delivery, namely:
Setting out a series of high-level policy objectives across the three thematic areas of Quality, Conservation, and Future Proofing, which must be pursued when planning capital investment and framing current spending plans.
In so doing, the Policy Statement underpins strategic planning for investment. Within 3 months of publication of the Policy Statement, Irish Water must prepare a ‘Strategic Funding Plan’ setting out proposed operational and capital expenditure for the period up to 2025. Subject to its approval by the Minister, the Strategic Funding Plan will ultimately feed into annual Exchequer decisions on spending.
There is full alignment between the Policy Statement and commitments in the National Planning Framework 2018-2040 (which anticipates a population increase of 1 million people and the creation of 660,000 net new jobs by 2040), the National Development Plan 2018-2027, and the recently approved River Basin Management Plan for Ireland 2018-2021. In practical terms this means that provision is already in place for an unprecedented investment of €8.5 billion in public water and wastewater infrastructure over the next ten years, underlining the strength of the Government’s commitment to investment in this key area. Significant additional funding has also been earmarked for rural water services.
Overall, the alignment of policy and investment will help ensure Ireland has secure, resilient, high-quality water supplies and appropriate levels of wastewater treatment. These outcomes are vital for protecting public health, enabling social development such as new housing infrastructure and protecting our environment. They will also support economic development, including water-intensive industries such as agri-food and bio-pharma that sustain about 400,000 jobs in Ireland.
The Minister concluded by acknowledging the added value provided by Water Sector stakeholders in preparing the Policy Statement, saying:
“Water sector stakeholders, not least through the new statutory roles of An Fóram Uisce - the national Water Forum - and the Water Advisory Body, are now placed at the heart of the policy formulation process. This is as it should be, and adds greatly to my own sense of optimism about the future of our water services in Ireland.”
Ends
Notes for editors
Key principles
The following set of principles will guide the development of water services:
These key principles reflect the importance of structuring water and wastewater services around Ireland’s needs, the centrality of customers, the prioritisation of public health and environmental protection, and the inter-linked relationships and responsibilities necessary to ensure service delivery and accountability.
Policy Objectives – Quality
Safe drinking water is essential to the day-to-day activities of households, communities, social services and the economy. Unsafe water supplies risk public health, inconvenience daily life and inhibit economic activity.
Significant capital investment, together with operational and management improvements, are required to optimise the performance of our water and wastewater systems.
Priority objectives include:
The Statement outlines specific policy objectives in relation to:
Policy Objectives – Conservation
Responsible environmental, social and economic policy means that conservation must be at the heart of water services policy. The abstraction and treatment of water is costly and impacts on the natural environment.
Priority objectives include:
The Statement outlines specific policy objectives in relation to:
An Fóram Uisce (the National Water Forum) has a specific role in examining and making recommendations on further strategic policy responses to improve water conservation.
Policy Objectives – Future Proofing
Ireland’s future economic and social progress is critically dependent on upscaling our capacity to deliver reliable, high quality water and wastewater services. Long term pressures on service delivery include increasing demand due to anticipated population and economic growth (we are planning for an additional 1 million people and 660,000 additional jobs in the economy by 2040); the impacts of climate change; and changing precipitation patterns.
Priority objectives include:
The Statement outlines specific policy objectives in relation to:
Oversight and accountability
Good governance of water services is built on three mutually reinforcing and complementary dimensions, which the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) identifies as: Effectiveness, Efficiency and Trust and Engagement.
Legislative and regulatory controls are in place under the Water Services Acts to ensure governance, oversight and accountability in relation to water services. In particular, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, as regulators, together with An Fóram Uisce and the Water Advisory Body, as independent Stakeholder bodies, will play important statutory roles.
The Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government will draw upon these and other monitoring and reporting mechanisms to verify that the objectives of the Policy Statement are being fulfilled in a balanced manner across the three thematic areas of Quality, Conservation and Future Proofing.
This Policy Statement will take effect in May 2018 and will remain in place until 2025. It will be reviewed in 2022.