Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)

I want to state in the strongest possible terms, Sinn Fein's opposition to the establishment of Irish Water and the introduction of water charges and our support for improving the existing local authority system.

The establishment of Irish Water is a Trojan horse for the installation of water meters and the imposition of water charges and lays the foundation for the full privatisation of the water sector in the future. The basis for the Government's argument is a so-called independent report carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The purpose of the research was never to improve water services for the Irish people but "to undertake an independent assessment of the transfer of responsibility for water services provision from the local authorities to a water utility", namely Irish Water. Despite this bias, the report goes on to state: "The point has been made that universal domestic metering is a theoretical rather than a practical proposition and it is quite probable that a minority of domestic customers will continue for the foreseeable future on an unmetered basis." It is important to note that the EU-IMF requirement does not mention metering. The intention of the Government is that Irish Water be established as a State owned subsidiary of Bord Gáis Éireann.

Meanwhile Sierra Support Services, a Siteserv plc company, has secured a contract worth up to €60 million to become the sole services provider for the installation, maintenance and testing of domestic boilers to Bord Gáis Éireann. Siteserv was sold to businessman Denis O'Brien recently. This raises serious questions about who will receive the contract for the installation and maintenance of more than 1 million water meters. We are led to believe that these meters will require regular maintenance and recalibration. Like SIPTU, we have concerns that the proposal to move 4,000 workers from their current positions in local authorities into a new utility will mean redundancies and a further loss of experience, intelligence, knowledge and talent. This is echoed in the PwC report. It stated that when Irish Water has fully taken over all water services from the local authorities, in 2018, employee numbers will be significantly lower than the 4,278 deployed today.

In its drive to establish Irish Water, the Government continues to spin myths about water charges and water meters. Myth number one is that the public gets water for free. This is untrue. The people already pay for their water through direct and indirect taxation. The introduction of separate water charges is an attempt to get the public to pay for water twice, once in their taxes and a second time through the water meter. This is unfair and regressive double taxation. The second myth is that all other citizens in the EU pay water charges. This is simply not true. In the North, we had a situation where the Sinn Féin Minister in the Assembly resisted introducing water charges, despite attempts by Westminister to impose water charges. People in the North do not pay the £600 average water charge on top of household and council charges people pay in England.

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