Tom Kilfeather, Sligo County Council's Director of Services for Infrastructure, presented a report to the Council's March meeting on the issue of 'Irish Water'.

From January 2014, Irish Water assumed responsibility for water and waste water services in Ireland. While the local authority will continue to operate and maintain water and waste water treatment plants and networks, they will operate under a 'Service Level Agreement' with the new body. This means that while the ownership and management of water assets transferred to Irish Water in 2014, asset operations will continue to be delivered locally by the local authority to agreed service levels. The agreement will operate for 12 years with reviews after two- and seven-year periods.

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Under the new arrangements, Sligo County Council will continue to undertake sampling and testing to monitor Design Build Operate (DBO) performance, and will continue to receive customer calls concerning DBO issues.

Irish Water will work with the Sligo Local Authority to reduce their costs relating to water services.

From 4 April 2014, all other queries concerning water supply will be dealt with by Irish Water.

(CD/JP)