Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----on charging for water and the importance the Government attaches to that in terms of control of usage, conservation measures and resources that need not come from the central Exchequer that will provide the Government with the capital investment to upgrade the pipe network and all that goes with it. There is no issue in that regard. The Government, however, sees its only role here as getting its hands into people's pockets and taking the money in another way without having thought out what it is ultimately trying to achieve, which is to put in place a national infrastructure for the provision of water.

The service is disjointed but it is working reasonably well. There have been problems in Galway, Ennis and other parts of the country, and the existing system worked to an extent, perhaps belatedly. Various contamination issues were addressed effectively with capital investment, but this also was done on a reactionary basis rather than with a properly planned, solution-driven approach to putting in place an appropriate network of water delivery. It seems the Government is following the age old way of doing it in an iterative way with the central aim - which is what Government and local authorities are often accused of - of merely grabbing the money without having the appropriate infrastructure in place.

The Minister has taken shortcuts. There was no appropriate tendering process to decide the company that would run this. Bord Gáis is a fine company and its chairman is a wonderful person, but I am somewhat concerned that Irish Water is now a constituent part of Bord Gáis. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, will be aware, through wearing his NewERA hat, that elements of Bord Gáis are due to be privatised. Was that the reason Irish Water was slotted in to Bord Gáis? Is that a resource the Government hopes to sell on at a later stage? I am concerned about that. That is a concern that exists in other jurisdictions. As the Minister of State will be aware, there are some very large companies that see water as a resource and that its provision can be a profit generator.

I have not seen any comprehensive analysis on the cost of metering. Some studies show that metering is helpful in the short term regarding conservation. I agree with metering but I am not so sure that the analysis stands up to support metering long term. It does for a while. It restricts the usage and it encourages conservation behaviour, but some studies I have seen seem to suggest that over a relatively short period of time consumers go back to their old behaviour. That is something I would like to see thrashed out and I am not so sure it has fed in to this legislation.

No doubt the piped network is antiquated in some parts of the country. The area that I know best has some very old piping and a significant amount of water is being lost. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, knew before he came into this House, through his experience at local authorities, the cost of treating that water and that so much of it is lost to the ground on an annual basis. When water leaks are identified at surface level, they are repaired quickly but, sadly, much of the water is lost into the ground and never comes to the surface and, therefore, it is never seen and is not identified. That is a considerable drain on resources and we must look much more carefully at that aspect.

There is some uncertainty about the employees who currently work with local authorities.

I am not saying that necessarily should be the driver, but they need to be taken into consideration. I commented earlier on the decision to liquidate IBRC. Overnight, workers were told they were out of a job and there is a process there. The Government needs to reflect and give some sense of security to these people. If there is no security, let them know that now so that they can make those life decisions for themselves. The Government needs to set out clearly an appropriate charge. We are discussing metering and a change in the way water will be delivered with, effectively, the introduction of a charging regime for domestic users. However, as Opposition Members we have no concept of how much that will be. While I am not having a go at the Minister of State, it would have been helpful-----

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