Minister rejects mutualisation move for Northern Ireland Water

Northern Ireland’s infrastructure minister, John O’Dowd, has explicitly refused to consider mutualisation of Northern Ireland Water (NI water).

Some politicians in the region argue that a governance change would improve the company’s ability to boost investment in key water infrastructure.

Speaking during a Stormont debate on the current crisis which has stymied development across Northern Ireland, the minister argued that changing the governance model would inevitably mean that the Northern Ireland Executive would lose political control over the company and would have to accept domestic water charges. He insisted that what NI Water needed was more funding, including from the UK government.

NI Water is a non-departmental public body (NDPB). Some 70 per cent of its revenue comes from minister O’Dowd’s department in the form of domestic subsidy. All of NI Water's capital and resource expenditure comes from the government budget. It cannot borrow from external sources.

The minister argued that “mutualisation would require charges being paid by domestic water customers. It would also require the relinquishing of Northern Ireland Executive control over the company”.

O’Dowd has suggested that developers could and perhaps should be required to pay for water infrastructure needed to service housing and commercial developments.