Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I am equally dubious about how the timeline has been completely thrown off by the lack of information from Irish Water. The public is being deliberately kept in the dark. This is the only conclusion we can draw. The water charges are political dynamite as everybody who canvassed knows.

CER states the average charge will not be more than €240 on average. From where does it get this figure? OECD best practice for government services in general and water charges is full cost recovery. This is what is in the document drawn up by the IMF and the previous Government. Full cost recovery includes operational and capital costs. The current cost of supplying non-domestic and domestic water is approximately €1.2 billion. As €200 million is paid by the non-domestic sector I will work on the figure of €1 billion. A total of 1.48 million households are on the public water supply system with others on group water schemes. If this is divided into €1 billion the result is €675. Why does CER, the Government and Irish Water keep stating the average figure will be €240? I have seen water bills in Britain for more than €600. One can see them on Facebook. People should be told what the real figure will be. Why does CER operate on the lower figure?

So-called allowances of water were trumpeted before the election, but now we read that what has been discovered is that children consume less water than was previously thought. I do not know how one measures what a child consumes. How does anyone know what a child consumes? The meter records the use of the overall household. The free allowance of 38,000 litres which was trumpeted has been thrown off course and it may be that people will have much higher bills. What is the attitude of the witnesses on this?

I understand the witnesses stating they will go with what the HSE or the Department of Health has to say with regard to health, but they also told us they are independent. Why will they leave such an important matter to what is effectively the Government to decide?

If people have serious health needs that require them to use much more water, will the independent regulator have a role in that regard?

When will people know the water charges they will have to pay? I am still not clear how it will work. Is Mr. McGowan saying each household must fill in a form, similar to a census, indicating to Irish Water who is living in that house? It is not clear how that will be done.

Finally, as the energy regulator, Mr. McGowan might have a word with someone about the air conditioning level in here, which is ten times higher than necessary. We are all freezing. If it was lowered it might reduce considerably the costs of running the Dáil.