Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett might take the opportunity to do so now. I can answer his question very directly. The decision the Government has made on the future of the water supply will not result in the privatisation of services. That is because the decision we have made is to establish a public State company, a subsidiary of Bord Gáis Éireann, to be the water utility. We have to examine the supply and delivery of water into the future. One of the problems is that we have not faced up to them until it is too late or the last minute. We already know we have a problem. We saw this in one of our cities within the past two years when for a period of three or four months people were not able to drink the water because it was contaminated. We also know there are issues, for example, in the supply of water to the capital city. There are questions about the adequacy of the water supply to the greater Dublin area which will have to be addressed. Therefore, we have to make provision to ensure that there will be an adequate supply of water delivered to households and businesses in the next 20 years or more. We also have to make provision to ensure the water will be clean, that we will not see a repeat of what happened in Galway with the outbreak of cryptosporidium or what is happening in the south of England where there is already a shortage of water. This means we have to make prudent provision for investment in the water supply over that period. To address this - we have to do it on a national basis - the decision the Government has made is to establish a State company which will be a subsidiary of Bord Gáis Éireann over the course of the next two to two and half years. The company will work with the energy regulator to work out a way to provide for metering and charging. On the contrary, it will not, as the Deputy has alleged, result in the privatisation of water services. The thinking behind the decision is to ensure our water supply remains in public hands within a public utility established as a subsidiary of a State company.

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