Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)

The Minister spoke earlier about the level of misinformation and scaremongering that has taken place in this debate. In the absence of any clarity from the Government, that is bound to happen. We have had no clarity on the funding model, the charges, the free allowance or even the criteria to be used to ascertain the free allowance. The Minister referred to a conservative estimate of a 10% reduction in water usage. He has, however, provided no research to back this up. If he has, I have certainly not seen it. In his speech, the only research he could produce to justify that 10% estimate was in a reference to RTE's "The Consumer Show" in which a family of five reduced its water usage.

Ireland compares to Manchester in population size. Water meters have been in place in Manchester for over 20 years and 152 litres per person per day is used there. In Dublin, where there are no water meters, individual usage is 148 litres per day. There is no evidence to suggest water meters conserve water.

The Minister claimed Sinn Féin is a partitionist party.

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