Debate contribution: NI Water: Funding and Governance

Debate contribution by Mr Patsy McGlone on 29 April 2025.

MLA

Mr Patsy McGlone

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

29 April 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

NI Water: Funding and Governance

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4922193

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Go raibh maith agat, a Phríomh-Leas-Cheann Comhairle as ucht an t-am a thabhairt dúinn inniu.

Of course, this is a crucial issue. It is very important. Northern Ireland Water has warned that up to 100 waste water treatment facilities are at or near capacity, with around 100 areas, including 25 towns, facing development restrictions. NI Water's own research shows that failing to invest properly could cost the economy 17,300 potential jobs by 2027. New housing projects cannot go ahead because the infrastructure is not in place to support them, which is a direct result of the current governance and funding model. The development of 19,000 homes has been stalled as a result. It is not just homes that are being stalled but factories, schools and any form of development that requires sewage disposal. To take that a stage further, there are also implications for the housing market. Today, I met representatives of the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations upstairs. Social housing schemes are being delayed and cannot go ahead. Private housing schemes cannot go ahead: they are being stalled and cannot progress. The lack of available private housing affects the market, so the whole question of affordable housing comes into play. As there are fewer houses available at a certain price, demand is increasing and prices are going up. All those areas are impacted on by the issue. We can take it even further. Many councils are at varying stages of their local development plans. In some of those areas, the local development plans are being rendered hypothetical because councils can do no more than say, "There is the plan. We cannot implement it". That is for housing, local development, factories etc — the list goes on. Northern Ireland Water's status as a non-departmental public body means that it is subject to rigid Treasury rules that prevent long-term planning and private capital access. Despite mounting evidence and pressure, including calls from the Northern Ireland Audit Office and NI Water itself, successive Sinn Féin Infrastructure Ministers have refused to initiate an independent review. Instead, they have opted for a forensic accounting exercise to address the projected overspend, which is £3 million this year. I do not dispute the need for that exercise, but it would be useful to have its terms of reference so that we could see what it would cover. I will return to that later because other issues there need to be addressed. The SDLP has been consistent in calling for an independent review of Northern Ireland Water's funding and governance model to inform decisions on how that crucial utility provider can operate sustainably for everyone's benefit and in an accountable manner. I will come back to that. Without functioning waste water infrastructure, developing homes, growing our economy and protecting our environment — a crucial issue — will be impacted on. I represent a good part of the western shore of Lough Neagh, where the so-called toxic blossom of blue-green algae is starting to manifest itself again. The overflow from sewage disposal works is a contributory factor to that. There is no doubt about it. You cannot fix a leaking pipe with a spreadsheet. Further delay is not just costing us money; it is costing homes, jobs and our environment. The Audit Office says, "Review it"; NI Water says, "Review it"; everyone says, "Review it". It is over to the Minister and the Department now. The solution itself is not forensic. We need real action, not more excuses — and, for God's sake, no more reviews. It is not just DFI that we hear that from around this place. From DAERA, we hear, "We are conducting a review of that", "We are having a review", and, "We are having another review". That is kicking the tin down the alley. We want practical, concrete measures that are driven by what are called "a Government". A Government are there to bring forward proposals to drive the economy and support the building of housing, including social housing.

Yes.

That will become very apparent in my next comments — very apparent. That moves us on to the governance issues at NI Water. I am glad that you have given me the opportunity to mention those. I sat on the Public Accounts Committee back in 2010-11. It was something else to sit through our being misled and lied to by senior officials. That eventually resulted in the demotion of a very senior official. That Public Accounts Committee came up with a series of recommendations to be delivered, through the Department, to NI Water. I would seriously like to hear how many, if any, of those recommendations have been implemented at NI Water. I have been contacted by a whistle-blower about practices in NI Water. I initially spent literally three hours going through stuff with him, and my eyes started to stand in my head. It was incredible. Poor workmanship, potential fraud, the use of unregistered subcontractors and the use of non-approved subcontractors was drawn to the attention of NI Water in November 2023. A meeting was held between the whistle-blower and senior managers from NI Water, and they were shown the information again. One of them said, "It could be fraud". A contractor user was consistently awarded tender works that were later discovered to be more expensive than other suppliers' work would have been. Much of the work ought to have been resolved as warranty claimed but instead was paid twice or thrice and, in some cases, paid and never resolved. Potential fraud was officially reported to senior-category managers at NI Water and its mechanical and electrical (M&E) statutory maintenance and cyber compliance manager. A number of site reports were noted, with photographic evidence provided. On 12 April 2024, the M&E statutory manager and cyber complaints manager provided an update to the whistle-blower. There were suspicions that complicit fraud and wrongdoing was going on. The whistle-blower then received word that his contract had been ended. Right? On 29 April 2024, the whistle-blower and one of the senior managers were interviewed by NI Water governance for four hours. In May 2024, specific patterns in NI Water were noticed by the whistle-blower, and a further 40 cases of potential fraud and wrongdoing were reported to governance via a SharePoint folder that had been created to hold data. Furthermore, there were material changes on 24 May. The whistle-blower noticed that there were material changes to the C1100 contract. The perception was that it was turning into a witch-hunt of the whistle-blower, instead of his being held as a person of repute who was trying to resolve the issues that he perceived in NI Water.

On 30 July 2024, the whistle-blower wrote to NI Water's chief executive and its board to ensure that they were aware of the situation, again providing all the data on SharePoint. There was then a follow-up article in the 'Belfast Telegraph'.

Deloitte was appointed on 15 August 2024 to conduct an investigation. Incidentally, Deloitte had received £1·62 million from NI Water over the previous five years. The whistle-blower met representatives from Deloitte, and Deloitte undertook to come back to the whistle-blower concerning the investigation. Four separate emails were sent to Deloitte, but it never showed up to meet the whistle-blower to investigate the cases. Deloitte then declared that it was not necessary to discuss any of the cases, as they were consistent with what had already been examined. Purchase orders had been issued in the name of a contract user who was on sick leave. Then, on 28 March this year, I attended, along with the whistle-blower, a meeting with NI Water and Deloitte's head of audit and governance. It quickly became apparent to everyone present that the £144,000 that had been spent on Deloitte to conduct a forensic investigation had not dealt with the key issues. We were present at that meeting and showed Deloitte's representatives the evidence that they were supposed to have looked at, but they had not looked at it. It had all already been provided to NI Water. That is incredible stuff.

Go raibh míle maith agat.

It is important that Members hear this and that we are heard.

1,367 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:28 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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