Irish Water chief on jaunt to New Zealand just days before retiring
He’s leaving at the end of the month, so why are taxpayers forking out?
THE head of Irish Water is on a taxpayer-funded trip to New Zealand – although he is retiring at the end of the month, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
On Thursday, Jerry Grant will address the Water New Zealand Conference & Expo’s Thought Leadership stage with his 30minute presentation on Water Sector Reform Program in Ireland – Process, Challenges and Achievement.
The MoS contacted Irish Water on Friday to enquire about the logic of sending a person to a conference who would be leaving in the coming weeks – taking any knowledge gleaned from the trip with them.
The utility initially implied that Mr Grant was paying for the trip out of his own pocket.
‘Jerry Grant is currently on annual leave in Australia. Mr Grant paid for his own holiday. While there Jerry Grant is taking up a longstanding personal invite from the Water New Zealand CEO to speak at its annual international Conference & Expo about the reform of the water sector in Ireland. Jerry Grant will retire as MD of Irish Water at the end of this month,’ the spokeswoman said.
However, when pressed the following day on whether taxpayers are covering the cost of any expenses for the trip, the Irish Water spokeswoman confirmed that the semistate body was paying for its outgoing MD to attend the conference, including his flights and accommodation.
The spokeswoman was unsure of the name of which hotel Mr Grant was staying in – and wasn’t able to obtain this information yesterday, despite the MoS suggesting that a text message to Mr Grant might resolve the query. She didn’t reply to further questions about how long Mr Grant would be staying in New Zealand.
A different spokeswoman later confirmed that the company paid for return flights from Australia to New Zealand. She said it is Irish Water policy to travel on the cheapest available flight. While details of which Australian airport Mr Grant is flying from are not known, most flights cost in the region of €500. Asked if Mr Grant was travelling alone, she said: ‘That’s what I don’t know… I can’t answer that right now.’ When asked if she could contact Mr Grant to check, she replied: ‘Oh no, I wouldn’t even have a number for him, to be honest. I can’t, no.’ The three-day conference takes place at Claudelands Event Centre in the northern island city of Hamilton. Rooms at hotels suggested on the conference website range from €87 to €215 per night. Details of Mr Grant’s retirement package are not known.
His predecessor John Tierney, who was on a salary of €200,000, received an estimated €300,000 tax-free lump sum upon his retirment in 2016. It was previously revealed Irish Water spent €41,998 on a Honda CR-V company car for Mr Grant.
Mr Grant previously worked as head of asset management in Irish Water and, prior to that, was MD at controversial consultancy firm RPS. RPS was singled out in a judgment, along with a Dublin City Council official, for manipulating official waste records and had an EU complaint against it upheld after consultancy costs for the project cost €30m – €24m more than original estimates.
Irish Water has come under sharp criticism since its set-up for its spending – with €73m being spent on consultants. More bizarre costs include €6,000 on a laughing yoga class for 300 staff. Last year it was revealed that staff shared €3.2m in bonus pay for work in 2016.
Irish Water has faced many challenges since its establishment in 2011. Most recently drought conditions saw a hose pipe ban introduced to conserve supply.
‘He will retire as MD at the end of this month’