John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

Local authorities have invested €130 million in water conservation projects since 2003, most of which came from Exchequer funds. I can say with absolute certainty that this sum will be substantially exceeded in the three-year period of the next water services investment programme from 2010 to 2012. I will make an announcement shortly in that regard.

The degree of leakage varies considerably in different local authority areas from 16.8% to 58.6%. In Dublin, for example, we have managed through investment to reduce the rate of leakage to some 28%, but that remains unacceptably high. We must recognise that water is a scarce resource. I refer here to treated water which costs more than €1 billion per annum. In other words, domestic customers are mistaken if they believe they are getting free water. We are all paying for it in some form.

The programme for Government includes a commitment to introduce a system for metering of water where customers will have to pay for consumption in excess of a certain threshold. If people were paying such charges already, it is unlikely they would have allowed their taps to run as they did during the recent severe weather. What is required is a change of mindset. In this new era water is a scarce resource which must be treated with care.

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