Council warn of budget 2027 hit as Uisce Éireann agreement ends

Westmeath County Council is facing a major financial challenge as the end of its long-running Service Level Agreement (SLA) with Uisce Éireann approaches, councillors have been told.

Speaking at the quarterly finance meeting in Mullingar, director of finance Michael Hand identified the ending of the water services agreement as one of the biggest issues that will have to be addressed in preparing the 2027 budget.

Chief executive Barry Kehoe later expanded on the point after Cllr David Jones sought an update on the future of the agreement and its implications for staff.

Mr Kehoe said: "The Service Level Agreement with Uisce Éireann comes to an end at the end of this year and by the end of December, all staff who currently work for Westmeath County Council, but who are working with Uisce Éireann, will have to make a decision as to whether they want to come back and work for Westmeath County Council or transfer to Uisce Éireann," he said.

He explained that only a relatively small number of employees in Westmeath would be directly affected, but warned that the bigger issue for the council is the financial impact of the new arrangements.

"There is over €1.5 million there in central management charge and pensions of staff who used to work in water services that we need to be compensated for," Mr Kehoe said. "Otherwise, that will have a massive impact on our budget for 2027."

He said discussions were continuing between local authorities and the Dept of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on securing compensation arrangements.

"We're continuing to talk to the department about that at national level because every local authority is in exactly the same position, so that work is ongoing to smooth out that transition to January 1, 2027," he said.

From that date, he added, Uisce Éireann will become "an entirely independent utility in its own right".

The issue was first raised by Cllr Jones, who asked whether there was any indication if the agreement would be renewed and what it would mean for council employees currently working on behalf of Uisce Éireann.

The financial implications had already been highlighted in Mr Hand's finance report, which identified "the cessation of Water Services SLAs and Central Management Charge (CMC) arrangements at the end of 2026" as one of the principal challenges facing the preparation of next year's budget, alongside the delivery of the Strategic Workforce Plan and the continuing maintenance of the council's growing housing stock.