Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The other issue is around the representing of the voice of the consumer or the user. Of course, they do not have a voice or a single voice as there are a variety of different views out there. For me, the real value of the forum is if it becomes a facilitator for all those different voices to get access to the information they need and have that voice, which is something the Public Water Forum has not been able to do up to this point. Again, this may have been through no fault of its own. I would be interested to hear the witnesses’ ideas, beyond what they have said already, on how that voice can be brought to bear with the high level advocacy and education activities that Dr. Collins has spoken of and in the day-to-day issues. Members of the Houses receive many complaints, and I am sure the other members of this committee would emphasise the same point, that for all of the faults of the old system - and I am not arguing for a return to the old system of delivery of water services - there was at least a local point of connection when it was council staff and elected council members to engage face-to-face with people about concerns around delivery of water services. That is not there anymore. Dr. Collins spoke of the higher levels of education and advocacy, which is really important, but we must also consider the people who are accessing water in their communities. How do we involve those people? Is it through the public participation networks in the local authorities or through some other mechanism?

My other point is relevant to all three groups here today. The expert group recommends four actions. I am interested to hear if the Public Water Forum agrees with each of those actions, how the witnesses believe they could be actioned and if having more direct public involvement and greater access to information from the water utilities is a good thing. The actions are all eminently sensible, even for those of us who are strong critics of Irish Water – and Mr. Grant knows all about that. If this committee is going to make recommendations on how to implement those four key actions we would welcome hearing any thoughts, ideas or suggestions the witnesses have on those. The summary recommendations of the actions are listed on page two of the report and that is part of what this committee is trying to deal with.