Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)

I wish to share time with Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív. I am grateful of the opportunity to participate in this debate and I am sure we will have many more debates on this important issue. I listened with interest to the Minister who has again engaged in an attempt to spin a web of confusion around the troika of charges the Government will introduce, namely, a property tax, a water tax and a household utility charge. Despite everything he said, he did not really come clean on how he will roll out the water charge. We do not know the number of free litres per domestic household nor what the charge for usage above that will be.

The Minister said previously that he intends to introduce a flat rate household utility charge in advance of the introduction of a property tax. When I quizzed his party leader, the Taoiseach, about same, he tried to describe it as a forerunner to the introduction of water charges. There is a little bit of confusion there. When the proposed property tax and the water metering programme are rolled out, will the flat rate household utility charge disappear? We believe the Minister is introducing it as some kind of funding mechanism, because he is not clear on rolling out the metering programme. Will the cost of the installation of meters come from the household utility charge or from the National Pensions Reserve Fund or how does the Minister intend to fund it?

To the Minister's credit, he acknowledged there was a steady improvement in water quality over the past number of years and that there was considerable investment. My colleagues in Sinn Féin did not acknowledge that in the motion. Over the period 2000-09, the previous Government invested almost €4.6 billion of Exchequer resources in our water infrastructure and 476 major projects throughout the country were completed. There was, rightly, a significant programme under previous Governments for investment in water resources.

However, the debate must move on from that and we must focus on the future delivery of water services in this country. The public is anxious to know, with regard to the proposed charges, whether the household utility charge will disappear when a properly constructed infrastructure is provided to deliver water and meter it and when there is a fair charging system for usage above the free quota. The Government amendment states that the Government will introduce a fair funding model. We must know what that model is.

There are also questions, to which we must receive detailed responses, about the proposed establishment of the Irish water utility company. Will that take over all the core water provision functions from our local authorities? Will there be job losses for the many thousands of people employed in the local authorities? That has not been significantly explained. Is this the creation of another quango and is it necessary to take the option of creating one? The programme for Government promises the abolition of a number of quangos. I do not know how many the Government targeted for elimination in its first 100 days in office but I do not believe it has succeeded in eliminating any. From that point of view, is this the right model to choose and will there be job losses or enforced redundancies in the public services of local authorities? We must have clarity on that.

With regard to conservation measures, can we have more detail about harvesting rainwater? Will the Department produce a scheme over the next months and years whereby schools, clubs, businesses and households can avail of a properly structured grants or incentivisation scheme to invest in capital infrastructure to trap and use rainwater for toilets and other appropriate functions?

I am happy to take part in this debate. We will have many debates in the future on the imposition of water charges. The critical issues are what the free litre allowance will be and what charge will be imposed on households. The Minister says that the free delivery of water would mean an increase in taxation. The Government is attempting to have it both ways because it intends to introduce a water tax and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, would not confirm or deny in the House last week whether there would be increases in income taxes in the next budget.

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