John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

The last five weeks of 2010 saw unprecedented severe weather across the country. Spells of exceptionally cold weather led to some of the lowest temperatures ever recorded in Ireland, with heavy snowfalls in some places. Temperatures remained below zero for nine consecutive days in some inland areas. Many records for low temperatures were broken on the nights of 24 and 25 December. There was a dramatic change over the Christmas period. There was a rapid change to milder weather during St. Stephen's day and Monday, 27 December. On average, an overall change of approximately 20° was experienced over a period of between 24 and 36 hours. This led to a rapid thaw in most areas. Most of the snow in the southern half of the country had melted by Tuesday, 28 December. The thaw had taken effective hold over the rest of the country by Wednesday, 29 December.

This rapid thaw caused movement in the ground which led to pipes bursting. These bursts occurred not only in public mains but at the point of consumer connections to mains and on consumer service pipes. In addition to finding and fixing leaks on the public networks, many authorities had to assist in fixing consumer side leakage or disconnecting properties to protect the overall network and restore supply to the wider community. Nationally, more than 2,500 unattended properties had to be disconnected due to leakage on the consumer side. In the period after 26 December, almost 3,400 local authority staff and their contractors were involved in finding and fixing these leaks. Some 250,000 hours of work were involved over that period. Many of the workers in question had been involved in responding to the severe weather in the run-up to Christmas. In some cases, those who had salted and gritted roads during some of the most severe weather on record, drove tankers to ensure people had adequate access to drinking water. Staff in the water services areas of local authorities were willingly assisted by roads, housing and other support staff. Such a combined effort is the hallmark of public service. I commend them for their commitment. On behalf of the Government, I wholeheartedly thank them for their efforts. As a result of their work, progressive improvements were made on a daily basis so restrictions could be reduced and eliminated in many places. This work is continuing. Some restrictions continue to apply to ensure reservoirs are replenished to normal levels.

It is important to highlight that this response was part of the wider response to the severe weather, involving many statutory, voluntary and private bodies. The close co-operation of these groups at local level, along with their participation in the national severe weather co-ordination group, has ensured a focused response to the extreme conditions. This did not happen without appropriate planning. Lessons were learnt from weather events in 2009 and earlier in 2010. In the case of water services, local authorities put in place contingency arrangements before Christmas in light of the anticipated thaw. Demand management measures were introduced to seek to reduce demand and replenish reservoirs during the period of freezing weather, mainly through pressure reductions and night-time restrictions. Local authorities ensured that staff would be available throughout the Christmas and new year period so that once the thaw took hold and leaks began to appear, they could mobilise response crews immediately. The overall response at national level to the severe weather and the water supply disruptions is being reviewed by my Department and the other Departments and agencies involved. We will learn from the experience and further develop our response mechanisms.

I accept the need for substantial investment in water services. The Fine Gael motion completely ignores the extent of the investment made and the progress achieved in the sector over the past decade to address a legacy of historical under-investment. It also ignores the strategies in place to radically transform the sector in the coming years. Ireland has a diverse water supply system, with more than 950 public supplies producing some 1,600 million litres of water daily through a network of 25,000 km of pipes. The extent of burst water mains places a particular focus on the vulnerability of the Irish water distribution system given, in particular, its age, the high levels of leakage in the system and the lack of investment historically in mains rehabilitation. Water is a precious resource, with costs associated with treatment and distribution.

While one might accept that larger networks have greater inherent risks in terms of leakage, the levels of unaccounted for water in the Irish network are completely unacceptable. Improvements have been made in the Dublin area, with unaccounted for water reducing from some 42% to almost 30%. Many other areas of the country have rates of more than 50%. From an economic and environmental perspective, there must be a strong focus on addressing leakage in our water systems given the increased demands for water, greater pressures on raw water and more stringent drinking water standards. This is being addressed.

The focus of investment over recent years has been on improving water supply to keep pace with population and economic needs and investing to ensure compliance with the European directives on drinking water standards and urban waste water discharges. As a result of a €1 billion investment by the Exchequer under the water services investment programme between 2000 and 2009, water storage capacity increases alone were equivalent to the needs of a population of 1.6 million. A greater proportion of investment under the water services investment programme 2010-2012 will be dedicated to improving water supply infrastructure, with water conservation being accorded top priority.

The publication of the water services investment programme 2010-2012 followed on from a root and branch review of water services capital investment. This included a review of all projects included in the previous programme which had not substantially advanced to ensure the contracts and schemes to proceed were fully aligned with key programme economic and environmental priorities. The 2010-2012 programme sets out an expanded investment in critical mains rehabilitation with contracts with a value of some €320 million set to commence over the period of the programme. This is more than double the investment of €130 million in water conservation measures in the period 2003-09. Senator Glynn went into this in some detail in his contribution.

Most of the expenditure to date on water conservation outside Dublin has been largely in technology-based water management systems. These systems proved invaluable during the recent difficulties in managing production and providing data to assist in leak detection. These systems are a necessary precursor to investment in mains rehabilitation. While the Dublin authorities' programme of rehabilitation is the most advanced, other authorities were finalising their programmes of works during 2010 to allow for contract commencements this year. The investment of €435 million in water services in 2011 under this programme will, in addition to prioritising water conservation, allow for the progression of priority contracts for expansion of supply or the improvement of security of supply in a number of hubs and gateways.

It is anticipated that sustained investment in line with that envisaged in the water services investment programme could reduce the rate of unaccounted for water by 10% nationwide by 2016. In addition, I have placed a particular emphasis on training of water services personnel, making available a dedicated funding stream in 2010. Through this fund, some 500 days of training on leakage detection were provided in 2010. Investment and training can only do so much. How we use water also needs to be addressed and water charges, based on usage, has a major part to play in this regard. My Department is finalising proposals to give effect to the Government decision to introduce water charges in a way that is fair, significantly reduces waste and is easily applied.

The national recovery plan proposes that the introduction of water charges for domestic customers be preceded by the commencement of a national metering programme, which will be funded by the National Pensions Reserve Fund, to install meters in households connected to the public water supply. The metering programme is likely to take a number of years to complete but the objective is that it will be substantially advanced over the next three years. My Department is analysing the various options to ensure the delivery of the metering programme in the most cost effective manner. The installation of water meters in households connected to public supplies will encourage householders to conserve water and will result in savings in the significant operational costs incurred by local authorities in providing water and waste water services. It will also complement the significant increases in investment on water conservation measures in the water services investment programme.

The Government recognises that a crucial element of implementing this initiative will be the appointment of a water regulator. It is intended that the water regulator would be responsible for the economic regulation of water services to the non-domestic and domestic sectors. Independent regulation will ensure greater transparency and fairness in water pricing for both sectors and that charges can be clearly linked to the delivery of a reliable and good quality service. In addition to overseeing the rate of water charges, the water regulator will also be responsible for establishing standards for service delivery and performance. Consideration is being given to assigning the responsibility for regulation of the water sector to an existing regulatory body, although no final decision has yet been taken on this matter.

Notwithstanding the efforts of the local authorities in dealing quickly with the disruptions to water supply and the difficulties experienced by the national water authority in Northern Ireland, the Fine Gael motion still envisages the consolidation of water maintenance functions under a single national authority. This completely ignores that our capacity to respond quickly and deal with the water supply disruptions over recent weeks has been due in large part to local authorities being able to mobilise resources locally to deal with local problems. This contrasts with the response in Northern Ireland. A move to centralising water functions must be backed up by detailed evidence and research. Admittedly, several policy reports and publications have recommended structural reforms for the delivery of water services. The reports of the special group on public service numbers and expenditure programmes and of the high level group on green enterprise recommended the establishment of a national water authority while a regional or river basin approach to water services was recommended by the local government efficiency review group and in the OECD's environmental performance review of Ireland. The Government has not ruled out assessing the need for and role of a national water authority but it will consider this issue on an informed basis.

My Department will shortly be initiating an independent assessment of the transfer of responsibility for water services provision from the 34 county and city councils to a national water authority. This assessment will be completed by the end of this year. It is intended that the assessment would review the existing structures for the delivery of water services and will determine the most effective structures for delivering high quality competitively priced water services to customers and for infrastructure provision. The review of the current delivery structures will include an examination of the performance of local authorities in recent years in the provision of water services and will determine whether existing structures are the most efficient and effective for the delivery and operation of water services. This goes a long way towards addressing the points raised by Senator Coffey in his contribution.

The assessment will also have regard to other structural reforms that are ongoing, including the establishment of the regulator for water, the introduction of metered water charges, the implementation of the recommendations of the local government efficiency review group and of the value for money study of the water services investment programme as well as the structures for the implementation of the river basin management plans.

The Government is committed to continued high levels of investment in water services. This investment is informed by a clear strategy which prioritises water conservation, improvement in water quality and provision of capacity to facilitate enterprise needs and underpin economic recovery. Over time, this will further improve the general condition of Irish water services infrastructure. While any infrastructure will be vulnerable to unprecedented weather events, the investment should improve the resilience of the infrastructure. Combined with the Government proposals to commence a programme of domestic metering to be funded by the National Pensions Reserve Fund and to establish an independent regulator for the water sector, this will build on the investment made in the sector to transform our water services sector radically over the coming decade.

I again acknowledge the difficulties that the unprecedented weather has caused for communities, and commend all those public organisations, voluntary groups and communities who worked together throughout the five week period to ensure the social and business life could continue as much as possible. We will continue to learn from these experiences to ensure that all actors are appropriately engaged to ensure optimum response and continuance of public service in such challenging circumstances.