Mr. Séamas Ó Tuathail:

Of course. I agree with the tone of Deputy Ó Broin's questions.

I do not see any difficulty in distinguishing between private and public ownership of water supplies. There was a question on what would happen to decommissioned assets. When State companies have assets that are decommissioned, they are usually sold by the State company, such as Bord na Móna for example. They can be sold, but they are sold subject to the requirements of Bord na Móna in its semi-State personality. If there is any issue around public or private in that situation, Bord na Móna makes a decision which anybody can challenge. The most famous challenge ever to Bord na Móna was about who owned the cutaway bogland. That is now becoming very important because of the suggestion that we can have a huge lake in the midlands, drawn from the Shannon, to supply Dublin with water. We have an underground aquifer on the Dublin-Kildare border that has been there since the ice age. The experts say it can supply Dublin's domestic and commercial needs for 25 years but we might not want to tap it. In respect of the cutaway bogland, the decision was that Bord na Móna's statutory remit from the Oireachtas was to cut, save and sell the turf. The Oireachtas did not, however, give it ownership of the cutaway. That was a famous case near Athlone many years ago. That is still the law. The position of these public bodies that have existed and served the people and the country very well in difficult times is not affected in any way by the passage of this referendum, which specifically deals with the public water supply.