Infrastructure

Irish Water hopes to tempt council workers with €3k transfer bonus

Some 3,000 council employees have been offered the cash incentive to join the utility, which wants to employ them in order to have full control of the public water service

The offer of a €3,000 “incentive payment” for council workers to move over to Irish Water will be withdrawn if they do not transfer by the 2026 deadline

Around 3,000 council water service workers have been offered a €3,000 transfer bonus to persuade them to move to Irish Water.

These workers are still based in the country’s 31 councils, but Irish Water has been seeking for years to employ them directly alongside its own 800 staff so that it has full control of the public water service.

The deal agreed between unions and Irish Water is designed to have all water service workers ...