Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the opportunity to debate this issue. The motion contains several good proposals that deserve cross-party support. In some ways, the recent water shortages on both sides of the Border were beyond the control of the relevant authorities, but there is no doubt that the crisis initially brought about by the weather was exacerbated by the manner in which the water supply was managed. Therefore, there is considerable merit in Fine Gael's proposals to establish a publicly owned company to take over responsibility for the water supply. This would make sense from a number of perspectives. For example, considerable economies of scale would take effect were such a body to be established.

In establishing such a company, it would need to be clearly set down that it would never be considered as a candidate for privatisation. I say this in view of the expected publication shortly of the McCarthy group report on State assets. Going by the tenor of Professor McCarthy's bord snip nua report, many believe this new report may recommend that State companies be put up for sale to the private sector.

The experience in other countries, including Britain, suggests that privatisation is not a good way to administer the water supply. The need to ensure a safe and universal water supply is the reason the water supply in almost every state on the planet was established under public control. This has nothing to do with states controlling areas to which neo-liberals claim they have no business. Nor has the maintenance of water under public control anything to do with ideology. I am pleased to say that my party north of the Border has been instrumental in ensuring that such a policy was not extended to the Six Counties, although the recent shortages there suggest that the current company is far from perfect.

People do not need to pay for their water supply in this State, but that situation may yet change if the Green Party can think of any more excuses to drag out the term of this Government. Even if the current Government does not introduce metering and water charges, a new Government comprising Fine Gael and Labour would do so, as both are committed to this policy. Labour only recently signalled its willingness to do so as part of its acceptance of the austerity programme that will need to be imposed. Therefore, Sinn Féin is the only party in the House that remains opposed to water charges. While this fact is not mentioned in the motion, I will be happy to support the motion on that basis. However, we will strongly oppose any attempt to introduce metering and water charges by the current Government or its successor.

One of the reasons most cited in favour of water charges is that it would encourage people to be less wasteful. There is an element of waste but, as the motion points out, 43% of supply is lost through leaks within the infrastructure and not through overuse by consumers. Given this fact, surely a major effort ought to be put into addressing inefficiencies in supply before charging domestic consumers. This too would be more cost efficient, given that the estimated cost of installing meters is €600 million. Investing some of that in improving the efficiency of supply would ensure a major reduction in water wastage.

There is also quite a large amount of waste in the commercial sector and many local authorities have failed to collect water charges due from that source. The level of waste in the commercial sector is clearly on a large scale. For example, it was claimed that Starbucks in Britain, due to its practice of continually running taps, wastes 1.63 million litres of water per day. There is also the fact that the introduction of water charges at the present time would constitute nothing more than finding yet another means to eat into people's incomes to pay for the mess caused by the banks and speculators. Supporters of metering claim that it could be implemented in a manner that would only penalise excessive use, but there is no guarantee about the level at which charges will be applied. Unfortunately, the experience is that, once something along those lines is introduced, it is regarded as a lucrative source of revenue and the bar is lowered rather than raised. Sinn Féin will support the motion.

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