I have a series of questions about what is really going on with the back door to this place in terms of Irish Water. On 16 November, staff who were seconded to Irish Water from local authorities received a letter from Irish Water management stating that the service level agreement under which they work, which is due to expire in 2025, will be renegotiated and all negotiations concluded by the end of February 2019. This is the result of a report commissioned by the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, in May 2018 when he asked the Workplace Relations Commission to review the service level agreement, consult all sides and produce a report on the matter. The report was submitted to the Minister in September. All of the bodies that contributed to the report, namely, the Local Government Management Agency, the relevant trade union, the Workplace Relations Commission and the Irish Water utility, acknowledged that the arrangement of seconding to Irish Water workers who had spent their working lives employed in local authority water services has been brilliant. The experience, skills and depth of knowledge they brought to Irish Water was found to be indispensable and very much welcomed by the utility. When one reads the report, one finds that all the relevant bodies share this view.

The problem is that the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government is rushing to change the service level agreement, which is supposed to last until 2025. He wants to change it in 2021 and wants the negotiations on same ended by February 2019, which is three months away. I have noted the co-ordination in this campaign. The report was published in September and shortly afterwards, a report is published setting out excess charges that will be implemented in 2020 and how much income they will generate. Shortly after that, the Environmental Protection Agency produced a report showing that local private water utilities are poisoning people because they are not delivering a proper service. We then get reports that the Government proposes to undermine a Bill introduced by Deputy Joan Collins and supported by many parties providing for a referendum to prohibit the privatisation of Irish Water. It will do so by amending the Bill to allow for an element of privatisation known as public private partnership, PPP. What will happen to the jobs of Irish Water workers who do not want to transfer to a utility that may privatise water in the future? Will the Government get over itself and, once and for all, tell people that water will remain in public hands and will never be privatised? It must make that clear because the messages are extremely confusing and extraordinarily worrying for communities and, in particular, the workers in question.

I thank Deputy Bríd Smith for her strong support of Irish Water.

That is not what the Deputy said.

It is the first time that I have heard it and I welcome it. I admit that I have not read the report to which she referred, nor have I seen it. I am not, therefore, in a position to offer any commentary on it. I would be pleased to make early contact with my colleague, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to address the three questions that the Deputy put to me.

It is important, within the timeframe suggested by the Deputy, that there is a form of consultation and dialogue and every effort is made on the part of management to ensure that worker and staff concerns, such as those outlined by the Deputy, can be addressed. We also have the industrial relations mechanisms of the State. I hope that over the next few months the grievances, as identified by Deputy Smith, can be dealt with through discussion, dialogue and consultation.

I very much welcome the Deputy's support for Irish Water and her commentary on the matter of the workforce. I assure her that every effort will be made by the Minister to ensure an appropriate transition.

To correct the record, I never once said I support Irish Water. I will clarify my position for the Minister. The reason I am on my feet is that I fully support the staff who were seconded from the local authorities to work for Irish Water. I take my hat off to them and to their expertise, skill and commitment as well as their ability to deal with problems at a local level with which they are so familiar because they have spent years working on water services. We treat those workers badly or diss them at our peril.

The Minister stated there is a form of consultation and dialogue taking place. It is shoving this down the throats of workers to have a complex service level agreement renegotiated within three months when they only heard about it last week. That is not dialogue or consultation. There needs to be an absolute guarantee in respect of their conditions, pensions, work and who they work for. Do they work for the public service or will they work for some PPP entity called Irish Water in future? The Minister did not comment on the privatised, back-door nature of what the Government is attempting to do here.

Shame on the Government that its members have not been informed of the report. The Minister, who has an adviser seated beside him, should read the report. It states that the workers who have been seconded to Irish Water are an invaluable asset to this project. We will try to mess them about or take away their terms and conditions at our peril. Will the Minister comment on the issue of privatisation by the back door?

I assure Deputy Smith that there is no back door process or secret arrangement under way. Any discussions of an important nature will take place in the course of due process. There will be an adequate consultation process. There is a timeframe, as mentioned by the Deputy, within which all of the arrangements can be managed if there is the will on the part of everybody involved.

That is not a timeframe.

I, too, acknowledge the hard work that has been undertaken by Irish Water workers engaging in what is a vital public service. I also acknowledge the challenges being undertaken by Irish Water in recent times in view of the changes by way of legislation introduced in the House. We still have a great challenge to ensure that our water services are improving in accordance with our commitments given in the programme for Government.

The Government must look after the workers if it wants to meet that challenge.

There is also a long-term need to ensure a proper and adequate water supply of world-class standard in our Project Ireland 2040 proposals.

I encourage Deputy Smith to continue to engage. I assure her and other Deputies of the active engagement on the part of the Minister and his officials.