Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)

I move:

"That Dáil Éireann:

— affirms that access to water and sewerage services for domestic use is a universally recognised and basic human right;

— acknowledges that the right to water includes the right to clean and safe water, the right to equitable access to water without discrimination (including on grounds of income), and the right to freedom from contamination or arbitrary disconnection of the water supply;

— recognises that water is a valuable resource that is expensive to treat and distribute and that everyone has a duty to conserve it;

— believes that responsibility, including operational responsibility, for water production, treatment and distribution must remain with local authorities and within full public ownership;

— affirms that public authorities must take effective management decisions to protect and improve water quality, and to promote and ensure water conservation and sustainability in an equitable manner consistent with the principle of progressivity;

— rejects the creeping privatisation of our most vital resource evidenced by the preferred option status of design, build and operate contracts with private companies in the area of water production and treatment services;

— alerts the Government to the danger that the current policy trajectory will shortly bring us to a situation where water services are entirely in private hands leaving the Irish public vulnerable to the profiteering price hikes and water poverty that have been witnessed elsewhere in the world, and particularly in countries under strong IMF influence such as Argentina and Bolivia;

— notes that the record of privatisation of water services in other jurisdictions is abysmal, demonstrating that the pursuit of such policies is not in the best interest of the people of this State;

— notes that the introduction of metering with any form of charge for domestic users signals the end of the Irish derogation from the European Union's Water Directive which exempts only our current practice from the full cost recovery principle, the consequence of which would be much higher household water bills than those currently signalled by Government;

— condemns the chronic and ongoing lack of investment in our water infrastructure, especially during the time of budget surpluses, with the result that up to 58% of treated water is lost by the distribution network before it even reaches households;

— considers that the €500 million which the Government intends spending on the installation of household water meters, rising to €1 billion due to the funding options being considered, would be better spent upgrading the antiquated distribution network and such investment would more than pay for itself in a relatively short time and both retain and create jobs in the local economy;

— notes that local authorities have substantial funding in the Water Services capital accounts which they are prevented from using due to the conditions imposed by the European Growth and Stability Pact;

— promotes the establishment of an All-Ireland Water and Sewerage Authority, the purpose of which would be only to ensure that water quality and environmental standards are met and to facilitate co-operation between local authorities on the island, reduce costs and maximise efficiency, leaving the operational responsibility with local authorities;

— rejects the use of stealth taxes and other forms of regressive double-taxation as a funding mechanism for domestic water whether said stealth taxes consist of a flat charge under any name or a flat rate charge with a meter; and

— affirms that the central taxation system is the only appropriate funding mechanism for domestic water."

The purpose of this motion is to restate Sinn Féin's opposition to the Government's proposed introduction of water charges. People should not be obliged to pay twice for this essential public service, which is a recognised as a basic human right. It is Sinn Féin's belief - one which is not shared by the Government parties - that there should be equitable access to water without discrimination. I include in the latter discrimination based on grounds of income.

Everyone recognises that water is a valuable resource and is expensive to treat. We believe the process of treating water should be paid for through the central taxation system. Operational responsibility for water production, treatment and distribution must remain with local authorities. The resource of water must also remain in full public ownership. As already stated, water is an extremely valuable resource and it is one with which we cannot afford to take chances. We are calling on all Members to support this motion. I include in that people in the Labour Party who were opposed to water charges before they went into government a few months ago and those who informed people prior to the election that they would help them out of the hopeless economic hellhole in which they now find themselves.

I call on those Members who spoke out about water charges in the 1980s and 1990s to do so again. I refer, in particular, to the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Gilmore, who produced a leaflet in which he claimed that "water charges are just another tax on workers". I call on the Tánaiste to take a stand and to reiterate the views he espoused up to a few months ago just prior to the general election when he described water charges as another tax on workers that will be additional to PAYE, PRSI and levies. In the leaflet to which I refer, the Tánaiste criticised the then Government for attempting to make people pay for water while it was still "looking after tax dodgers". Little has changed in the interim with the exception of the dates, the currency used and the eradication of the principles of certain Members, combined with a wholesale disregard for the promises they made to the people who gave them the votes which enabled them to drive home in their ministerial cars.

People cannot afford another charge on top of the money they are already being obliged to pay out. They are already obliged to pay the universal social charge, various levies, PRSI, steadily increasing fuel bills and mortgage increases. In addition, it is proposed that they should pay a utility charge. All of this comes in the wake of absolutely brutal pay cuts and the reduction in working hours being imposed on people who occupy very precarious jobs. It must also be remembered that massive pay cuts have been implemented, officially and unofficially, across the public and private sectors.

It is easy for the Government to introduce a flat-rate water charge and say people will only be obliged to pay a small amount of money. Not one of those in government will be lying in his or her bed tonight having nightmares about his or her home being repossessed or dreading what is around the corner in the next budget. No, they will sleep soundly in their beds and they will not be at all bothered that they have cynically transformed a crisis in private debt that was caused by greed into one involving public expenditure.

Ideologically speaking, the Government must introduce a flat rate charge for water because to do otherwise would be to acknowledge explicitly that those who have more should pay more. As George Orwell noted in Animal Farm:

All animals are equal

But some are more equal than others.

Would Fine Gael privatise daylight if science found a way to allow it to do so? The introduction of water charges follows on from the process of creeping privatisation begun by Fianna Fáil and the Green Party when in government with the introduction of the design, build and operate, DBO, model. An example of the effects of this can be found in my home county of Laois, where private companies were contracted under the DBO model to provide water services and to construct and operate a number of water treatment plants and one major sewage treatment plant. Massive amounts of taxpayers' money was paid up front in respect of the construction costs relating to these projects. Now, however, the State through the local authorities is tied in to an expensive, long-term contract under which huge payments must be made on an annual basis to the private companies which run these plants. This is bad economics but it is also bad for local democracy.

Global water intelligence analysts believe the water supply market will grow by as much as 20% during the next five years. Water is big business. It is not surprising that a Government which is intent on feathering the nests of the haves rather than the have-nots now wishes to facilitate a situation whereby water is dealt with solely on the basis of market forces. I refer here to the very same market forces which are responsible for placing us in the situation in which we currently find ourselves.

Market-led solutions completely undermine the provision of essential services and have a negative impact on the poorest and most vulnerable communities.

Water privatisation is the most notorious example. One only has to look across at England to see what happened there, particularly to people living on low incomes, and the disaster privatisation has been for water provision throughout England, Scotland and Wales. Private companies exist to make profits. They are not going to maintain a profit while allowing for the mythical free allowance Fine Gael talk about. The Tories told the British people the privatisation of telecoms, electricity, gas and water was for their benefit. Unfortunately, utility bills now bear witness to the fact that this was not the case. The utility companies that own these facilities are making vast profits while the public are getting huge bills.

How will this water charge operate? What will happen to a person who receives a water bill in the post and cannot pay it? Will they be issued with a fine and how much will that fine be? When they cannot pay the fine will they be jailed? I presume so. Will this not be a further criminalisation of poverty?

Private companies operating water plants are a millstone around the necks of local authorities that have to pay annual charges to them. Local authorities do not have full control over what happens in the plants. I have seen this at first hand. Local authorities are locked into contracts with the companies and must abide by those terms. Consider a local authority that enters into a 25 year DPO contract with company X and the EU issues another water directive five years into the period of the contract. The trend of these directives is to improve the standard of water quality, which Sinn Féin supports. However, as the directive is outside the terms of the contract, the local authority will have no option but to pay the company more money to operate the plant to a higher standard. The local authority will be bound by a contractual obligation.

Water is a resource too valuable to play around with. We do not want to see the Irish public vulnerable to price hikes and water poverty. We have witnessed this elsewhere in the world, particularly in countries under strong IMF influence, such as Argentina and Bolivia.

Despite the need for local authority funding, councils have, for the most part, proved themselves in the area of provision of water. They have the local knowledge and engineering expertise to handle water services. In most cases, with a couple of exceptions, they have a proven track record. We are losing water out of the system because of the ineptitude of previous Governments. During the Celtic tiger years when there was money to fix pipes and install new systems, Governments did not do so. Instead, they gave tax breaks to developers.

That the Government plans to take extra money from taxpayers without putting it back into the system is farcical. The money will be used for meters. Local authorities have substantial funding in their water service capital accounts. This money could be used to fund the repair and replacement of the antiquated pipework system. Local authorities are prevented from using it by the Government's compliance with the terms of the EU Growth and Stability Pact. County Louth, for example, has collected almost €10 million in development levies. This cannot be used because of the Growth and Stability Pact. County Laois, my own county, has €7.5 million, which is substantial funding for a small local authority, that cannot be used because of the terms and conditions of the pact. The money must be maintained throughout the 12 month budgetary period.

We do not have to be beholden to the markets. We are asking the Government to put the needs of the Irish people ahead of the wishes of private interests, for once. I strongly urge all Members, particularly members of the Labour Party, to support this motion.

See this speech in context