Bonus payments to staff at State-owned utility Uisce Éireann last year topped €13 million.
That is according to Uisce Éireann’s 2024 annual report which shows that the €13.08 million in performance related pay was a €2.5 million increase on the performance related payouts of €10.57 million for 2023.
The report discloses that Uisce Éireann made performance related payments to 2,244 employees in 2025 in respect of 2024. About 1,631 staff received bonus payments for 2023.
The average bonus was €5,830. That was down €650 on the the prior year.
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The annual report states that “performance is assessed against individual objectives and corporate objectives through a balanced scorecard process”.
No bonus went to chief executive Niall Gleeson.
The report also reveals that the numbers earning over €100,000 last year totalled 421. That was 18 per cent higher than the 344 in that earning bracket in 2023.
The detailed figures show that four staff members earned between €250,000 and €275,000; five between €225,000 and €250,000 and nine between €200,000 and €225,000.
A further 22 earned between €175,000 and €200,000 while 35 earned between €150,000 and €175,000.
Just over 100 staff earned between €125,000 and €150,000 while 244 earned between €100,000 and €125,000.
Overall staff costs increased by €44 million to €158 million as numbers employed increased by 630 to 2,108.
The payment to Mr Gleeson remained at the same level at €275,000 made up of €225,000 in basic salary, €27,000 in pension contributions and €23,000 in ‘other short term’ employee costs.
Last year, pre-tax profits at Uisce Eireann decreased by 15pc to €321 million as operating costs rose by 5pc from €983.62 million to €1.03 billion.
Revenues last year increased by 3 per cent from €1.56 billion to €1.606 billion.
The utility’s revenues were made up of €1.13 billion in Government subvention payments for domestic water billing, non domestic revenues of €271.79 million while new connection revenues declined by 20 per cent to €195.24 million.
Chief financial officer, Chris McCarthy, said that Uisce Éireann “delivered a strong financial performance during 2024”.
He said that the profit, together with necessary Government support in capital contributions of €572 million “was invested to fund critical infrastructure projects and enabled the successful delivery of a €1.372 billion capital investment programme in 2024”.
He said: “This allowed us to improve the quality of our water supply, improve our compliance with standards and increase capacity for housing and development to support economic growth.
