Ciarán Cannon (Fine Gael)

We must be very clear about what we are addressing. We face two distinct issues: the micro-management of our water services and the macro-management of our water service infrastructure nationally. These are two different things. Senator Ellis is quite correct to point out that in respect of salt supplies and the gritting of roads during the most recent cold spell, the National Roads Authority failed abysmally in the micro-management of that system. It should have been left in the hands of local authorities. I hope the power and authority to micro-manage our road network during a freeze will return to our local authorities. However, I do not agree with Senator Ellis when he states the NRA has not been successful in the macro-management of our national road network. One need only travel throughout the country on what is fast becoming a world-class state-of-the-art motorway network.

Rather than usurping the authority of local government and detracting from the experience and wisdom of our local authority engineers, the NRA has taken that wisdom and experience and incorporated it into its planning during the past 15 years. Many of us will know of former roads engineers who had been employed by local authorities and who were taken into the NRA structure on secondment for the period of the construction of a motorway in a given local authority. The NRA has co-ordinated efforts throughout the country to create this magnificent motorway network. It has used the wisdom and experience of our engineers rather than having usurped the local authorities. We must be careful to make the distinction between the micro-management and macro-management of our road network system. In general, the NRA has been a remarkably successful entity and authority.

The water problems of the recent freeze up did not occur only during recent months. We have been aware of the issues within the system for many years. Some years ago, Forfás produced a report and found that 43% of the water we produce is simply unaccounted for. This figure of 43% is an average throughout all local authorities and the situation in several local authorities is a good deal worse than 43%. We must conclude that the fragmented approach of water provision in this country throughout 34 local authorities is simply not working and will not work in future. If our electricity supply was generated within each county, what a fragmented, haphazard approach it would represent for electricity generation. There is no reason to expect that if we co-ordinate and set up a single water authority to cover the macro-management and planning for a sustainable and properly functioning national water network, it would not work as well as the NRA with regard to the roads.

We held this debate last February. At the time the Minister, Deputy Gormley, rubbished Fine Gael's plan for a single, national water authority, as did Senator Glynn. This evening, Senator Ellis has continued to criticise Fine Gael for seeking to set up what he describes as another quango. At that time, the Minister, Deputy Gormley, had left the Chamber but I pointed out to Senator Glynn that it is the Government's own policy to set up a national water authority.

That policy came about through the provision of an excellent document produced in November 2009 by Deputy Mary Coughlan, the then Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and Deputy Eamon Ryan, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. They called on a high-level investigative group to examine how the Government might harness the potential of the green enterprise sector and stated it was central to the development of the smart economy and designated it as one of Ireland's target sectors for investment and job creation. Fine Gael and I fully support this aspiration. That report's introduction, signed by the Ministers, Deputies Coughlan and Ryan, stated that the Government would ensure the report would be acted upon swiftly and decisively in order that Ireland could extend its international reputation as an exciting and dynamic location for innovation and job creation. I advise Senator Ellis to read the document which states: "the setting up of a single national water authority with overall responsibility for system planning, delivery and maintenance will support the development of deeper public and private sector capabilities in the water sector and the development of projects of greater scale".