UP TO 400 jobs will be provided at a call centre for the State’s new water company Uisce Éireann that is to be based at the former Dell manufacturing building on the Raheen industrial estate.
The new year jobs boost was hinted at by Finance Minister Michael Noonan when he addressed the recent Limerick Chamber business awards function and it has now emerged the jobs will be located at the building vacated by Dell after it transferred its 2,000 job manufacturing facility to Poland four years ago.
While Mr Noonan would only say that talks on the jobs were at the final stages of negotiations and refused to make any further comment last week, Limerick Post understands that a formal statement on the project will be released by Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton in the coming days.
He is expected to confirm that the first 100 jobs will be provided by the water company within a year and the remainder will be in place by mid-2014 when the Government’s plan to introduce a charge for domestic water consumption will be implemented. It is proposed that an initial flat fee for household water use will be replaced by a metering system within two to three years.
Last April, the Government announced the introduction the domestic water charge to be administered by Uisce Éireann in conjunction with the Bord Gáis group. It is expected that the new state agency will take over the operation of water services from local authorities on a phased basis over a five-year period.
Outgoing Bord Gáis chief executive John Mullins has stated that agreement must be reached with local authority workers who are currently responsible for the water system and a committee set up to conclude that agreement is being chaired by Labour Relations Commission chief conciliator, Kevin Foley. It will be operated independently and has in recent months been the subject of a bidding process.
A requirement of the bidding process was that the jobs would be based in a major urban area because of the need for a significant labour pool. The new call centre team will be responsible for all customer queries including issues related to low pressure, pollution or disruptions to supply. Discussions for the company to operate the centre out of the vacant Raheen building have been taking place over recent months and it is expected that all legal issues will be concluded within the coming weeks.
Fexco, the Killorglin based service provider that has operated the Bord Gáis customer support centre since 2008, is believed to be a front runner in the bidding process to secure the licence to run the Raheen call centre.
Pictured – Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Richard Bruton
