Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the committee for inviting me in again to address the Third Stage of the Bill. I refer Deputies to the letter I wrote to the Minister in response to his letter. They will have received a copy by email yesterday. I thank Fiona for sending them out.

My intention in introducing the Bill, which has been signed by a significant number of Deputies, is to ensure that our public water system is not privatised in the future. This is a key concern of the Right2Water campaign. People saw the introduction of charges and metering as a means for commodifying water and preparing the basis for privatisation. Every Deputy should have received emails from the Right2Water campaign in the past few days showing that hundreds of people signed up calling for the committee to support the referendum. I received a few Fianna Fáil responses. Deputy O'Dea said he was in favour of the referendum. Deputy Scanlon said "Thank you for your email, Fianna Fáil fully supports the 35th amendment on public ownership and will support a referendum to enshrine it in our Constitution." I hope that will be the tone of today's meeting.

Increasingly water is viewed as a key resource with the potential of high profitability by the major transnational corporations. It is, in effect, the new oil. It would be extremely foolish to believe that these companies will not look to get their hands on this resource in Ireland.

As I stated in my letter, it is worth noting that this issue was the single biggest concern of the public as evidenced in the number of submissions to the expert commission on the funding of domestic water services and was one of the key recommendations of the Joint Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services. I again emphasise that we would be foolish to think that our water is not on the horizon for big transnational companies. The following is a quote from Willem Buiter, who is Citigroup's chief economist:

I expect to see in the near future a massive expansion of investment in the water sector, including the production of fresh, clean water from other sources... storage, shipping and transportation of water. I expect to see pipeline networks that will exceed the capacity of those for oil and gas today.

I see fleets of water tankers (single-hulled!) and storage facilities that will dwarf those we currently have for oil, natural gas and LNG.

He continued to outline the thinking behind financial institutions:

Water as an asset class will, in my view, become eventually the single most important physical-commodity based asset class, dwarfing oil, copper, agricultural commodities and precious metals.

He is bang on. Official figures show water producing twice the operating surplus and paying twice the dividends to shareholders in water firms compared with any other class of investment other than financial services. That just shows how profitable water is to these big transnational companies.

A constitutional amendment would protect against the threat of a government being strong-armed by an external authority. We saw that when the troika came into Greece. If anyone wants me to go into those details, I have the information. Greece was forced to privatise its water on the basis that it had structures already there and companies set up.

The committee should also note that the Bill was unopposed on Second Stage in the Dáil. There was no request for a vote. I understand the Government indicated it wanted to look for any unintended consequences.

I believe that in a referendum there would be widespread public support to insert this provision into the Constitution. I am disappointed that despite the considerable length of time since the Bill passed Second Stage, neither the then Minister, Deputy Coveney, nor the present Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, has made any formal proposal and the Minister still claims he is awaiting advice from the Attorney General.

I am also disappointed that on two occasions in December and February I asked the Minister to meet me, as he indicated he would in his letter to the committee in February. He said that he would be happy to meet the sponsors of the Bill to discuss these points and the further approaches to be adopted and progressed in the Bill. I wrote a letter to the Minister and he came back on 23rd February and said he would meet but not before being properly briefed on the legislation etc. I am still waiting for that meeting I was advised to seek.

It is strange that neither the Department nor Irish Water seems to be able to distinguish between what is a public water system, for which is it responsible, and the private system, such as group water schemes and private boreholes. This seems to be an area where there are most concerns about possible unintended consequences. I would be very happy to discuss any word changes or amendments that would help clarify this issue, provided so doing does not in any way water down the key aims of the constitutional amendment.

I attended a meeting in December at which the Parliamentary Legal Adviser presented her legal opinion on the Bill. The issue of a clarifying Bill was raised. As I also set out in my letter to the Minister, one clear solution to this would be for the Government to draft legislation in advance of any referendum, providing legal clarity on these issues. The legislation would simply be a clarifying Bill setting out exactly what is in the public system and what is not, and detailing the responsibility of the State with respect to both the public and private systems. Such clarifying legislation could be introduced in advance of a referendum.

On the issue of where the amendment should be placed in the Constitution, it is my view - based on the legal advice given to me by Séamas Ó Tuathail SC, who helped draw up the proposal with the Right2Water campaign - that the amendment should be placed in Article 28, which deals with the responsibilities of the State. Inserting the amendment into Article 10 or Article 40 would not be sufficient in keeping the public water system in public ownership and management. Article 10 simply confers general rights, which often have to be validated through the courts system.

In his opening statement provided to the committee for a meeting on 4 May 2017, Séamas Ó Tuathail stated:

The key aim of the proposed amendment is to provide constitutional protection for the public water system by clarifying and ‘copper fastening’ the Government’s ownership on behalf of the Irish people and responsibilities in this regard. By preventing these responsibilities from being re-assigned, devolved or delegated to private interests it is preventative and protective in nature.

It aims to confer certain responsibilities clearly on the government in terms of retaining ownership of the public water system, and ensuring the asset is protected, managed and maintained in the public interest. This can be most clearly and effectively achieved through Article 28[. It] deals with the Executive arm of the State and provides that it is collectively responsible to Dáil Éireann. The powers and responsibilities of central and local government as set out within Article 28.

Article 28 of the Constitution provides that the Government is collectively responsible for the Departments of State. It is also not unprecedented for the Constitution to assign specific responsibilities on the Government; [Article 29.4.1°] assigns the Government with the responsibility for the external affairs of the State. Conferring responsibilities on the Executive is more effective and precise than using a rights-based approach by inserting rights into Article 40.

We have spent considerable time on scrutiny and discussion of the legislation.

We have taken evidence from my legal adviser, Séamas Ó Tuathail, and there is legal advice from the Office of the Parliamentary Legal Adviser, OPLA, which has taken evidence from the Department officials, and the former Minister, Deputy Coveney. There has been sufficient scrutiny and as no amendments have been tabled, I request the committee to now move the Bill to the next Stage.