Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

According to the figures published for the number of people interested in decentralisation, only 38 staff of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government have volunteered to be decentralised to Enniscorthy, New Ross, Waterford or Wexford. On the assumption that those 38 people are fairly evenly distributed throughout the Department, if the decentralisation programme proceeds, we will find that the staff and expertise which has built up in this rather complex area will have to opt for transfer to Departments remaining in Dublin and the Minister will have to start afresh with new people who may have considerable experience in Army barracks, school buildings and the fitting out of hospitals but will not have assembled a great deal of experience on water treatment plants. I submit that the same applies to other divisions of the Department. I wonder — as I am sure the Minister does — how this ambitious programme based on the new regulatory framework and costing €4.4 billion will be achieved within the time limits required by our European Union obligations, given that the staff dealing with the matter would be entirely inexperienced in the area.

I accept there is a need to modernise and update water services legislation, introduce new procedures and implement European Union directives. However, I very much regret the inadequate legislation before us. For all the guff about consumer rights, no statutory right of access to water is being given to the public. The legislation is a thinly disguised attempt to privatise the water supply. Going hand in hand with that is a formula to get around the 1997 Act and re-introduce water charges by another name, be that a rent for the meter or a straight-up charge. It is our duty as an Opposition to oppose this legislation and, accordingly, the Labour Party will oppose the Second Stage reading of the Bill.

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