Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I will address my questions to Mr. Grant. Has the agenda to privatise water gone away? The anti-water charge movement succeeded in knocking it back and I think that it has been delayed but that the agenda has not gone away. It can be seen in recent comments by the Taoiseach, when he indicated his views on Deputy Joan Collins's Bill to keep water in public ownership. We also see it in the moves towards the single utility.

My understanding of the service level agreements with the councils for the council staff is that they were due to run to 2025. Now I see it is to be brought forward to 2021. I hear what the representatives of Irish Water are saying, that the staff who are currently there will have their wages, conditions and pensions respected but that does not really answer the question. The key question is what will be the position for new staff. Will newly-hired staff have the same wages, conditions and pension rights? Is Mr. Grant willing to give a commitment to the committee today that the wages, conditions and pension rights of newly-hired staff will be at least equal to what current staff have?

We have seen it in other utilities. It is part of the privatisation agenda when they start to recruit on lower rates. Then redundancies come on the agenda. I hear what is being said about there being no compulsory redundancies but we have heard that before. There are ways of manufacturing redundancies in a company and there is a vested interest in doing so when there is a two-tier workforce of people on lower wages and conditions and those on higher wages and conditions. Over time, the old staff are disposed of and the new staff mean a lower paid workforce, which is part of making a company ripe for privatisation. Will Mr. Grant give the commitment that new hires and staff will be on at least the same wages, conditions and pensions as existing staff?

Many members of the committee, myself included, believe the excessive use charge being introduced next year is the first step on the road to trying to introduce water charges by the back door. I want to be clear that if there are attempts to introduce water charges by the back door, they will be resisted, not only by political parties such as my own but more importantly by communities throughout the country. My question is how on earth will Irish Water introduce these excessive use charges next year when 42% of the country is unmetered and will remain so, since any attempt to meter the communities I represent will stand against it. They know it is part of an agenda of charging and privatisation down the road. I am interested to hear his response because I put it to Mr. Grant that Irish Water cannot do it.

There has been controversy recently over the €17 call-out charge which Irish Water intends to introduce next year for households that query bills for excessive use. According to reports, where someone calls them out and the query is correct there is no charge and where the query is not proven to be correct the charge will rise to €100. That is blatant discrimination against low-income families, households and communities. Of course the more affluent people will feel confident about querying a bill. How can a low-income household feel confident about querying a bill when there is a threat of a €100 penalty over their heads? It is blatant discrimination and I challenge Mr. Grant to say otherwise.

We have received reports of households and communities faced with issues which were illustrated most recently by our councillor Michael O'Brien who represents the Beaumont-Donaghmede ward in Dublin. Councillor O'Brien reported there was a terrace of nine houses where there was serious leakage in the wastewater system. The leakage does not take place in the mains which runs down the middle of the road or on the householder's pipe in the area between the garden wall and the house, but in the area of the offshoot pipe between the wall and the mains that runs down the middle of the road.

In the past, the practice was that the local authorities fixed such leaks. Here, what is happening is that the local authority says it is Irish Water's responsibility and, contrary to Mr. Grant's assertion that Irish Water always responds, it is saying that it is not the responsibility of Irish Water but of the householders who must fix it themselves. In this case fixing it involves opening the road at a cost of €20,000 to €30,000. In this case, and others like it that will inevitably arise, in effect Irish Water is saying householders must put themselves to enormous expense or otherwise the wastewater piping system degrades after a period at the risk of a public health hazard.

That is unacceptable. The old position should apply in the way that local authorities fixed it in the past. If Irish Water is in charge, it should fix it. That is what needs to be done in the interests of public health. I ask Mr. Grant to comment on that case.