Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I am not sure in whose shadow Deputy McGrath walks.

The question asked by Deputy Martin was why the Government did not accept the PwC in respect of setting up Irish Water. The Government considered the future resource of water and how it should be used quite some time ago. PwC was given the responsibility of producing a report in respect of the options. The Government considered it more appropriate to use the expertise in existing semi-State bodies with a proven record of dealing with consumers, clients, networks, accountants and bills when setting up Irish Water. The Government made its decision clearly that, first, a new entity would be set up as a public utility subsidiary of Bord Gáis Éireann – Irish Water – and that it would set out the details and strategy of how water resources can be used properly, efficiently and professionally for the good of the nation and the economy. As pointed out by the chief executive of Bord Gáis, serious engineering challenges must be dealt with. When Irish Water is set up, it will carry out its analysis and monitoring of what needs to be done from an engineering perspective and draw together the local authorities' different systems under a single system with national competence, which will be for the good of the economy. The Government made it perfectly clear that there will be no upfront charges until 2014. The details of these will be worked out by Bord Gáis Éireann and Irish Water and the Government will, in due course, make its decision with regard to the free water allowance to be given to every household. This means that those who are prudent and who conserve what is a precious resource should not find themselves in difficulty.

I was asked by Sinn Féin last week whether people's water supply might be cut off. Clearly they were looking for guarantees on that. If we gave a guarantee of that nature, people would feel they did not have to pay for anything. Water is a precious resource and we want to use it properly for the good of everybody and for the good of the economy, industry and business. There are demands for high levels of safe high quality water and that is what this is about. It is a structural change from the way water has been dealt with, provided and treated since the foundation of the State.

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