Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

One of the many conditions of the IMF was, under the heading of infrastructure, that the Government would carry out an assessment of the transfer of responsibility for our water service provision from the local authorities to a national utility and would prepare proposals for implementation with a view to start charging by 2012-13, and this assessment was to be completed by the end of this year. What progress has been made on that? That time line is not a mere suggestion we might consider at some stage. This is a mandatory requirement because it is a precondition to the introduction of the universal water charging system. Without it, we will not meet the fiscal targets and if we do not meet the fiscal targets, there will be no IMF money. We do not have much choice about this. This is to what the Government has signed up. As other countries, which have been forced to go to the IMF for funding, have found out, the IMF does not hang around waiting for countries to make up their minds. If there is any dragging of feet, the IMF comes in and forces the issue. The IMF will bring in, as it has done in countries in South America, large international water providers such as Veolia Water and Anglian Water. I do not want that to happen here.

We have a plentiful supply of water. It is a basic, plentiful natural resource, albeit that we have woefully mismanaged and abused it. It is a resource which we certainly should be capable of harnessing, managing and conserving in our national interests. The Fine Gael NewERA policy is the way to go. The notion of a national utility, as opposed to the 34 local authorities of which we spoke earlier, is exactly what the IMF is recommending. It is not just the IMF recommendation. It is also international best practice that there should be a single provider.

At least here in Dublin there is a high degree of co-operation between the four Dublin local authorities. Even so, we are inefficient because we are drawing water from outside our catchment which is not best practice. Ideally, for efficient management and distribution, the water source should be the centre of one's catchment. The same applies throughout the country. We are taking water from Wicklow and, as time goes by, we will go even further to remote areas to get our water. Ideally, everybody should draw from either the same source, or at least a limited number of sources, instead of the 34 local authorities and various schemes all seeking to provide their own water sources and their own distribution networks.

The tragedy, which others have mentioned, is that during the Celtic tiger years the Government did not make an investment in the collection, storage and distribution of water. My own area of the southside of Dublin and a great proportion of Dublin city centre gets its main supply from the Victorian network which is collapsing. The local authorities are making valiant efforts to try to hold it together but we need total replacement of the system. The result is that on many occasions Ireland is like a Third World country, unable to guarantee a water supply to homes, businesses, restaurants and hotels. I hear the Government boasting that we are building a smart economy. It is laughable to speak of building a smart economy when we cannot guarantee a supply of water to our taps. There is one pharmaceutical company in Dublin that uses the same amount of water, and pays for it - I am not complaining about the company which provides many jobs - as the entire city of Cork. If another similar company wanted to set up in Ireland, we would have to turn it away. This is not just a conservation or a fiscal issue, it is a jobs issue. I recommend the motion to the House.

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