Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Obviously, the whole thing is a bit farcical at this stage. I do not know why the Government and the Whips have not adjourned this business and allowed us to discuss the key issue of the day. However, we will now attend to these matters which are, in many ways, as important and will also have long-standing implications but which are clearly being overshadowed by the other events of the moment.

Clearly, the key plank of this legislation is to allow the Government to introduce domestic water meters. No doubt it will be surrounded by publicity and spin, that this will be a great step forward in terms of water conservation in Ireland. That, however, is a complete and utter joke. The Minister of State has already said that the Government intends to begin a programme of introducing water meters later this year. In the context of the legislation on the property tax, the Government is envisaging a scenario whereby, having pushed through that draconian legislation which enables Revenue to put its hands into the pockets of workers, social welfare recipients and pensioners to take that property tax from them, at around the same time, Irish Water will be visiting houses and housing estates to install water meters. What a recipe for an absolute and utter social explosion of resistance. It is patently obvious that it will be resisted the length and breadth of the country because ordinary people are not stupid. They know full well that a domestic water meter does not conserve water. All of the research and studies show that when water meters are introduced, initially, but temporarily, they may succeed in reducing water consumption by around 10%. All of the analyses, by Engineers Ireland and others, refers to that figure. The best case scenario is a 10% reduction in domestic water consumption.

All of us agree that there are very few people in this State who go out to work in the morning and leave their taps running because they could not care less. That does not mean that all of us could not do more to conserve water, however. Of course we could, but simple measures of education would be sufficient to deal with that. Our children are much better at conserving water than we are. They have been educated to turn the tap off when brushing their teeth and so forth. Education measures can assist and they work with our young people. We can all do better in this regard but we do not need a charge or a measure to do that - a simple education programme would do the job. The key reason for the excess use of water in domestic properties is the way in which those properties were designed. The lack of dual-flush toilets in older properties, for example, means that Irish toilets consume vastly greater quantities of water than toilets in other European countries. The lack of rainwater harvesting and the use of grey water facilities and so on are also an issue. If such measures were implemented, they could reduce domestic water consumption by around 50%. If the Department was really serious about reducing domestic water consumption, a programme to introduce such conservation measures, by way of a grant scheme, would be far more effective than any meter on a property.

Domestic consumption only accounts for a small percentage of the overall treated water consumption in this State. We must go back to the big-picture issue of unaccounted-for water and leaks. Let us look at the figures in that regard. The figures for unaccounted-for water across the local authorities in 2008 was 43.44%, in 2009, it was 44.5% and in 2010, the figure was 42.3%. It is an absolute and utter crime that treated water is going back into the ground. The figures for all of the major urban areas in 2010 are shocking - in Cork city, the leakage rate was 55%, in Dublin city, 46.36%, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, 28%, South Dublin was top of the range at just over 20%, Fingal, 30%, Galway city, 48%, Waterford, 47%, Limerick, 57% and Donegal and Kerry, 53% and 59% respectively. If we want to conserve water and save money, that is where the investment has to go. The Government has made a major propaganda argument about the jobs that will be created by the water meter installation programme but far more jobs would be created if the Government put crews to work, fixing the leaks in the water mains. I am not just talking off the top of my head in this regard. The studies and works done by local authorities over the years prove that this is the case. They also prove that such work can have a far greater impact on the amount of water saved than the introduction of water meters because domestic water consumption accounts for only 16% of the overall water supply. If the Government introduces measures which conserve only 10% of the domestic water supply, the real reduction in consumption is only about 1% in terms of the overall supply. In contrast, if the Government introduced measures to fix the water mains, which could reduce water loss in places like Dublin city from around 41% down to 30% or even 20%, as in South Dublin, then the real saving would be about 20% in terms of the overall water supply. That is where we should go. The studies show the fallacy of introducing domestic water meters.

The dogs in the streets know the reason for this. The only logic to the enormous cost of putting a meter on each property is to measure usage, charge for it and, in the future, privatise the company and sell it off. It does not matter what commitments are given today. Even if we believed the Minister and thought he was great, his successor could privatise water supply at a later date. That is why the Bill will be so strenuously resisted.

I take issue with the claim that jobs will be created and with the reliance on private operators for the installation of meters. I am sure the Minister is aware of evidence of a number of ground works contractors who did inadequate work during the boom. Many bad developers left leaking pipes and inadequately connected water mains all over the country. What assurances do we have that the Minister will check the records of the companies that will be engaged in these works and the other works they were involved in? Will contracts be awarded to companies whose previous work was unsatisfactory? This is an important issue and needs to be addressed.

Considerable expertise exists at local authority level. We could employ thousands of workers in a direct labour scheme that would ensure the fixing of mains and in a programme of enticing householders to conserve water in their homes by implementing measures to allow water consumption to be reduced. It is a scandal that schools are paying for water and that we do not a proper programme of rainwater harvesting on public buildings. These all expose the myth.

Talk of a free allowance of water is a gross insult to the tax paying public. As Deputy Pringle said, Irish people pay for water. It is acknowledged in the derogation granted by the EU that we pay for water in a different way, through central taxation. It is offensive to suggest we do not. There has been no clarity regarding the proposed free water allowance. Figures that have been spoken about, however, indicate an amount that would allow the average household to flush the toilet or wash the dishes. They would be lucky to get a shower out of it. That is not a great way forward.

The Government has not learned lessons from the previous attempts to introduce water charges in the 1980s and 1990s, which were met with significant opposition throughout the country. Opposition to a further attempt to introduce water charges in the three Dublin local authorities in the 1990s forced the abolition of water charges for the whole country. At that time, because the issue was so emotive, the law was changed to stop the Government from disconnecting a water supply without going to court. The Bill appears to remove that delimiting power and threatens disconnection of water supplies. This is to facilitate the continued bailout of bankers, bondholders and so on, which is what is behind all of this. Public services will not benefit from this measure. It is part of an overall neoliberal agenda that is being foisted on workers throughout Europe, privatising essential public services and fleecing ordinary people in order to pay debts that were not ours in the first place.

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