SIPTU is writing to all TDs and senators reiterating calls for a referendum to prohibit privatisation of water services - as the Government seeks to accelerate the integration of local authority water services personnel into the Irish Water utility.
The letter is being sent today to mark United Nations' World Water Day 2021, the theme of which is "valuing water".
Public water services in Ireland are currently delivered by 3,000 public servants in local authorities in conjunction with Irish Water under 31 Service Level Agreements, which were due to continue until 2025.
However, the Government has recently prepared a White Paper on a new framework for water services delivery, which envisages that long-running transfer of all local authority personnel into Irish Water should finish by this July, with the integration completed by the end of next year.
Unions have pledged to resist that move amid staff concerns that they would lose their public service status, terms and conditions by moving to the water utility.
In a precautionary ballot, over 90% of SIPTU members backed industrial action if any attempt was made to coerce staff into the transfer.
In today's letter to politicians, SIPTU notes that its members provide a quality service "... despite decades of under investment in our water networks by successive governments."
It also argues there is "strong public support" for the retention of public water services under state control and delivery.
The Government's Policy Paper titled 'Irish Water - Towards a national, publicly owned, regulated water services utility' fronted by Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh O'Brien anticipates that Irish Water will separate from the Ervia Group during 2023, but will be retained as a national publicly-owned, regulated water services utility.
The Programme for Government includes a commitment to retain Irish Water in public ownership as a national, standalone regulated utility, with further commitments to delivering sufficient funding for the necessary investment in drinking and waste water infrastructure.
However, SIPTU argues that a key part of ensuring that public water services cannot be privatised in the future is a referendum amending the constitution to prohibit privatisation.
"While the issue is referenced in the current Programme for Government, it falls short of a firm commitment to proceed with a referendum within the lifetime of this Administration," it says.
"We are asking all politicians to commit to prohibiting the privatisation of our public water services and to immediately put a referendum on the ownership of our public water services before the citizens of Ireland."
Minister O'Brien has previously described the policy paper as "an important step forward in the Government's drive to achieve a world class public water services system" but has acknowledged there is some way to go to ensure water and waste networks and broader environmental management systems are fit for purpose.
He has expressed the wish that Irish Water should become "the workplace of choice for local authority staff, and insisted that the Government would not leave local authorities with "unsupported financial liabilities" as a result of the transformation programme.
