Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his opening contribution on this legislation.

Fianna Fáil cannot support this Bill until the Government comes clean on the full cost and implications of its plan for water services. The Government has failed to learn from the household charge fiasco and is determined to ignore genuine concerns about its plan for water charges. These include the lack of detail in how much metering will cost the consumer, uncertainty for current employees, a rushed decision-making process by-passing the Oireachtas, confusion in the Cabinet over the costs involved, and no guarantee on conservation or water infrastructure. Metering will not be finished until 2016, contrary to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan's original time line of 2014. The Government is rushing ahead with the creation of Irish Water and rolling out water meters without clearly considering the costs involved to consumers. Apparently, apartments, in particular, will be excluded from metering but no details about how these will be charged has been yet forthcoming.

The Government has decided on this issue amidst internal Cabinet confusion over the costs, the lack of details on how much consumers will pay, no public tendering for the new body, the by-passing of the Oireachtas committee and holding a severely limited public consultation. For the Labour Party, it is yet another direct U-turn on its pre-election promises to the people. The Cabinet generated immense uncertainty over how much people would have to pay for the cost of water metering with contradictory statements coming out from various Cabinet Ministers.

The Minister, Deputy Hogan, has announced that householders will receive their first bills for water by the end of 2014. The estimated annual costs could reach €400 per household. He originally stated that the Government would implement water charging by 2014. However, reports in September 2012 indicate that metering would not be completed as late as 2016. Then Irish Water Board chief executive, Mr. John Mullins, stated that it will take two and a half to three years to fully install water meters in all qualifying properties. The Minister, Deputy Hogan's initial statements were clearly lacking any factual basis, casting his whole policy in doubt.

The Cabinet announced the creation of Irish Water which will be an independent State-owned subsidiary of Bord Gáis. It will bill all households for their use of public water supplies. The services were not put out to tender and the decision-making process to award the contract remains shrouded in mystery. Irish Water and the regulator, the Commission for Energy Regulation, will determine the cost of the service, the free allowance and the framework for levying the charges. However, there is no detail on the level of free allowance and the total costs involved to the consumer.

Irish Water will operate in conjunction with the current 34 local authorities, which operate the water infrastructure, up until 2017. However, the nature of the relationship between the bodies has not been clarified to date. Ultimately, local authorities will be stripped of this function. Despite the fact that the White Paper on local government reform has not been produced, the Government is whittling away their powers in an ad hoc incoherent fashion.

The Government has lauded the creation of Irish Water and rolling out of metering as a job stimulus package, yet it is pressing ahead with investments in the area without clarify the cost. It is also putting the cart before the horse as it has not passed the Construction Contracts Bill 2010 which would secure sub-contractors rights to ensure they will fully benefit from the stimulus.

I will address a number of metering issues. Water meters will be established in some 1.05 million households across the State. These meters will be built outside the curtilage of the property. Reports indicate that establishing water meters across the country will cost €300 million, although the cost may reach €500 million.

The 2011 census figures show the potential problems with the Government's plans. Some 503,140 units or 36% of those households eligible to pay water charges are potentially unsuitable for metering by the Government's own standards as they either are too old or are apartments, creating a two-tier system of charges. Apartments, some 300,000 units, will not be metered initially due to technical challenges. These will be charged through an alternative method, although the Government has been unclear as to how.

The employment status of those workers currently employed in the water section of local authorities is unclear. The PwC report on the creation of Irish Water has suggested job losses in the area. The PwC consultants report states that the number employed will be significantly lower than the 4,278 deployed today, although the Taoiseach has denied this. Additionally, it is unclear whether the 60,000 holiday homes across the country are eligible to pay water charges or whether vacant houses will be metered on an ongoing basis as they are occupied or in one fell swoop on estates.

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