Utility maintains two headings for payment
IRISH WATER has insisted that its ongoing spend on consultants is totally separate to its outlay during the setup of the company.
The utility has two distinct headings for such costs: ‘establishment’ and ‘ongoing’. But there are many examples of firms being paid under both headings.
For example, the documents released under FOI to the MoS show that A&L Goodbody was paid about €25,000 in July 2014 for ‘legal services’ as part of the establishment of Irish Water.
A&L Goodbody also got another 11 payments totalling €60,000 in the same month, also for ‘legal services’, and this spend is listed under ‘ongoing costs’.
In December 2014 Accenture received five payments totalling about €660,000 as part of the setup IT support costs. In the same month, it also received €45,000 in two payments listed under ‘ongoing costs’ for function support.
In November 2014 Irish Water made five payments to Ernst & Young as part of its setup totalling almost €25,000. The services are listed as functional support, programme support and systems development and support. In the same month it made three payments in respect of services such as procurement optimisation programme, totalling about €48,000 to the firm under ‘ongoing costs’.
Irish Water said there is a clear difference between the headings, and argued that any company of its size would have similar overlaps.