Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No.1:

In page 6, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following:

“Referendum on the Right to Water

5. The Minister shall, not later than 6 months after the passage of this Act, lay a report before the Oireachtas Committee that—

(a) proposes the wording for a referendum on the public ownership of water infrastructure,

(b) sets out a timeline for the referendum,

(c) sets out in detail all other key considerations.”.

This amendment, if accepted, will mean that the Minister, no later than six months after the passage of this Bill will lay a report before the Oireachtas committee on a proposed wording for a referendum on the public ownership of water infrastructure, to set out a timeline for a referendum, and to set out in detail any other considerations.

For quite some time the Government has been saying that the matter of a referendum is under consideration. This Government and Oireachtas is approximately halfway through its full term, so I believe the time for this matter to be under consideration is coming to a close and we need to know what the timeline is and when this will happen.

This amendment seeks to do that and I will go through some of the reasons I think that is very important, but I believe it would be useful if the Minister of State were able to give us an update. Is this matter still under consideration or does the Government now have a timeline as to when this referendum is likely to happen and when will we hear more about it? What are the Ministers of State’s thoughts in that regard?

On the substantive issue of water, its supply and the importance of it being in public ownership, we have seen around the world in the past number of years 235 different places where water went into private ownership and has been brought back into public ownership because the privatisation was so disastrous. Two of the high profile areas we would be aware of are Berlin and Paris.

In Paris, for example, over 24 years of privatisation the price of water increased by 174%. While the profits of the owner soared, the amount of public investment in the infrastructure did not justify that. That is one of the reasons water was brought back into public ownership. Bringing water back into public ownership is a very costly exercise because this infrastructure has often been privatised at a low cost and brought back in to public ownership at a very high cost to the Exchequer or to the people.

In Berlin the privatisation of water was nothing short of a disaster. It led to very significant deficits in investment in water infrastructure, which is something that we could not afford here. I am aware that the present Government has no intention whatsoever to privatise water. This is very important, however, where we as a committee are always talking about housing and the infrastructure needed around housing. While there are very significant deficits in that at present, privatisation would make that even worse again. As a fundamental issue in respect of people’s access to this resource, with the exception of air, there is nothing we need access to more for human life, for business, for farms, for companies, for industry and for everything, than water.

It is of crucial importance and the reassurance that a referendum on this will be held, putting it into the Constitution, and enshrining that public right and ownership, would be a very positive step. That is what this amendment is seeking to do in progressing that. If the Minister of State is able to give us a definitive update on what is going to happen with a referendum, then I will be happy to withdraw the amendment.