Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman, and I thank our guests for coming in and making their presentations. I too am disappointed that Mr. Ó Tuathail is not able to deliver his contribution in Irish, but such is the technical nature of this room, with the equipment that is in it. I appreciate the commentary that he and Ms Graham provided. I want to make one point which has been made already, but I believe that it should be given an airing, and that is that the committee is currently engaged in replication of another committee's work and I would imagine that the witnesses here will be invited before that committee as well. It is a replication of all of our work and I want to make that point from the start. I appreciate the legal opinion expressed, particularly given that it has come from someone with such extensive experience as Mr. Ó Tuathail.

The wording of the Bill presented by Deputy Joan Collins appears to be very straightforward. However, one must always bear in mind the unintended consequence of good intentions in terms of what has occurred in the past, particularly regarding other amendments to the Constitution. Our legal guest has rightly pointed out two clear and obvious issues regarding the existing legislative protections for the protection of ownership of water infrastructure. The first is that in the event of this country becoming bankrupt at a given point in the future with off-balance sheet lending versus Irish Water, as he rightly pointed out, there would have to be an asset transfer in order to repay the debt. I fully accept that point, which is fairly obvious to everybody concerned. The second concerns the whim of a Government, but it has been expressed by every political party and none that there is no desire to privatise the utility of Irish Water or the assets of that utility because they are in the ownership of the State. The Minister has reserved the right to amend and that is appropriate. Does Mr. Ó Tuathail agree that if some unintended consequence is discovered in the course of this process, particularly when it goes to the Attorney General's office at some point in the future, this provision is important? Does he accept that a constitutional issue could arise as a result of the deliberations that take place in the Houses of the Oireachtas and the Department?