Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Water Services Bill is fundamentally flawed and draconian in its content. It establishes Irish Water as a subsidiary of a company, Bord Gáis Éireann, which the Government has indicated it wants to sell off. The new company will be given the power to install meters and charge families. Crucially, the Bill repeals the prohibition on water charges. Denmark, with 5.5 million people, has a population similar to Ireland's. Denmark has water metering and in 2007 the average cost per household was €715. The Bill before the House does not take into account people on low incomes or even those living in poverty. Has the Bill been poverty-proofed? Some 706,000 people in the State live in poverty and their households will be charged the same amount as the Minister of State's, mine or the Taoiseach's - one of the highest earning politicians in the world. That is shameful and unjust. Developments, including that of a water system which ignore the essential needs of poor people in this country or abroad, are simply not sustainable. However, the Minister of State does not need to take my word for it. According to a major report carried out by the British Chartered Institute of Environment and Health a household, spending more than 3% of its income on water, is at risk of poverty. The report entitled, Water Poverty in England in Wales, found that "UK households in the lowest three income deciles spend on average 3% of their net income on water bills whereas the average spend for all households is just 1%." The report also states, "large water bills in relation to income do have the potential for causing significant deprivation." However, despite the international evidence the Bill does not even attempt to protect those low-income families and those who would be seen as vulnerable.

The establishment of Irish Water along with the imposition of water charges is at best ill-though out. It transpires that it will not be possible to install water meters in one third of households and I believe a similar number in the rest of the country - certainly in towns such as Portlaoise, Tullamore and Portarlington. If water meters lead to water conservation as the Minister of State claims, the Government has a problem. Despite informing the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment, Transport, Culture and the Gaeltacht that Irish Water would be ready to bill households in January 2014, John Mullins, the project CEO, was unable to inform the committee the full cost of the installation of meters. What way is it to proceed if at this point we cannot be informed on the cost of providing meters? We have not even been given an estimate. We are being asked to issue a blank cheque to a Bord Gáis Éireann subsidiary, which is lunacy in the current economic climate.

The Bill allows Irish Water to access information on households from sources including the Revenue, the Department of Social Protection, local authorities and the Private Residential Tenancy Board, which is a clear breach of people's privacy and civil liberties. It also gives powers to exempt Irish Water from the need to get planning permission when carrying out major infrastructural works. We need to see the Government-sponsored drive towards water metering in the context of overall Government policy. Sinn Féin condemns the wave of cuts in water investment planned from 2012 onwards as outlined in the Government's Capital Investment Programme 2012-2016. Capital investment in water has been cut from almost €435 million in 2011 to €331 million, a 25% cut.

It is a cut of approximately €200 million on the 2010 allocation with more cuts planned until the budget has been reduced to €266 million.

The budgets of consecutive Governments have brought extreme financial pressure to bear on families in this State. Water metering has an immediate and negative impact, particularly on the vulnerable sector. Taking into account poverty levels and income distribution, it is obvious water charges will impact on this group. Water charges must be considered within the broader context of the additional costs low income households costs will face in 2013. I am sure I do not need to explain that to the Minister of State. People are under serious pressure as a result of the cut in child benefit, the €100 household charge, the property tax, which it is estimated will be on average €495 per household, the increase in the carbon levy which will affect solid fuel to the tune of €5 per tonne, the reduction in the fuel allowance from 32 to 26 weeks, the 2% VAT increase, increased public transport fares, the increase in the drugs payment scheme thresholds, the increase in prescription charges and increases in school transport costs.

Water is a resource that everybody needs. Sinn Féin agrees on the need for better co-ordination across the island of Ireland in ensuring water is brought to where it is needed when it is needed and that homes and communities are protected against the adverse affects of flooding. In this State, there are 34 local authorities supplying water to almost 2 million households. There has been some debate on whether the actual number in this regard is 1.7 million or 1.9 million. Sinn Féin has opposed the introduction of water charges North and South and will continue to do so. We successfully campaigned against their introduction here in the 1980s and 1990s.

This Bill is fundamentally flawed and is based on false notions. On 24 January 2012, the Minister of State claimed that Ireland was the only country in the OECD where citizens did not pay directly for water. However, he failed to mention that people in the North, which is approximately an hour's drive from here and ten minutes from the Minister of State's home town, also do not pay water rates.

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