Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

I will confine my remarks to the motion itself and the amendments tabled. There is clearly an ideological thrust to the motion. That is to be welcomed. It is probably communist, which I do not welcome. The problem with the motion is that no solutions are offered. It is a list of preambular paragraphs with no operational clauses.

In the first paragraph water is described as a basic human right. It is not a basic human right. It is not in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights nor in the European Convention. Interestingly, in 2010 the General Assembly did say that access to water was a right but this country abstained from the vote. That is an academic point and serves no purpose in this context but what I am trying to explain is that there is nothing of substance in the motion.

Reference is made in paragraph 4 to operational responsibility being maintained by local authorities. There are more than 30 local authorities dealing with the issue and the proposers of the motion wish the status quo to remain. Unfortunately, water collection, treatment and distribution do not know the political boundaries we have in this country. We must look beyond that. We must look at the economies of scale we can find if we pool our resources. That is what the Government is attempting to do.

Paragraph 6 deals with the creeping privatisation of our most vital resource. We are not talking about that; we are talking about service delivery. We are not talking about privatising the rain, which is impossible. In paragraph 10 the motion condemns the chronic and ongoing lack of investment in our water infrastructure. I completely agree with that, but that is what we are trying to address with the Government amendment.

Reference is made in paragraph 12 to the European Stability and Growth Pact. Unfortunately, I was not present for the entire debate so I am not entirely sure what that is about. I would like to know more. In paragraph 13 the motion promotes the establishment of an all-Ireland water and sewerage authority. If one is not going to give the authority revenue raising powers or a budget, it will have no powers at all. In effect, it is the establishment of another quango, which we on this side of the House are currently trying to abolish.

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