About 97 per cent of staff at Uisce Éireann received a bonus payment last year under its performance-related award scheme, the Dáil Public Accounts Committee has been told.
The water utility said at a hearing on Thursday that 18 personnel did not receive any bonus. The company has more than 3,000 employees.
The committee was told there was also a cohort of staff who had originally worked for local authorities and who had opted to retain their traditional public service system of annual increments rather than a performance-related award scheme.
Uisce Éireann chief executive Niall Gleeson said staff who benefited from a performance-related award received about 90 per cent of their potential payments, which were based on both personal and corporate targets being achieved.
Uisce Éireann chief finance officer Chris McCarthy said the bonus system was tried and trusted in the market and drove performance in the organisation.
Fianna Fáil TD Paul McAuliffe said every year Uisce Éireann faced questions about bonus payments. He said if the utility believed this performance-related payment scheme was more cost effective than the system of annual increments paid across the public service, it should “put the comparative numbers in front of us”.
[ Improving water system to cost €50bn, Uisce Éireann tells Oireachtas groupOpens in new window ]
Gleeson said Uisce Éireann’s performance-related system was fair, cost neutral and a driver of performance.
The committee chairman, John Brady of Sinn Féin, said there was a focus on the bonus payments in the utility – which amounted to €17.9 million for 2025 – at a time when it faced penalties from its economic regulator for failing to meet some targets, and it had also been prosecuted by the Environmental Protection Agency and Inland Fisheries Ireland.
Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly said Uisce Éireann had only “very reluctantly, after ‘context’”, answered his question about how many staff had received the bonus payment.
Several members of the committee raised a €31 million “negative revenue adjustment” imposed by the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities after it determined that Uisce Éireann had underperformed against targets associated with leakage and with nondomestic billing over a five-year period. The utility argued this was not a fine but a revenue deduction over five years.
Cathy Bennett of Sinn Féin said pay of the Uisce Éireann chief executive had increased €118,000.
Gleeson said he accepted he was well paid. He said pay for chief executives across the commercial State sector had been reviewed by a committee established by the Minister for Public Expenditure. He said subsequently and following consultations between the board of the utility and the Minister for Housing, a new salary level for his post had been agreed. He said any future rises would be based on performance.
Bennett asked McCarthy whether he had received a pay increase. He said he had received a 3 per cent raise. She asked about his salary but he did not reply.
Gleeson then said while his salary details as chief executive were published, no one else in the utility had their specific pay revealed, although remuneration bands were set out in its annual accounts.
Gleeson said there was a three-year agreement with unions that provided for a 3 per cent increase in pay. However, payment of the full 3 per cent was also linked to performance.
Gleeson said Uisce Éireann had paid €4,000 for media training for its personnel in advance of appearing at the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday.
He said staff found it “fairly intimidating” to attend such public hearings.
“We receive training to give you the best answers possible,” he said.
“All you have to do is tell us the answers,” Bennett replied.