Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. The Aer Lingus scenario is probably in the background for many of these people. It would be a concern that they might end up in the same place and that there may be an impact on their pensions in the long term. I do not have enough information to comment but I know that people are concerned.

That Irish Water will not be subject to freedom of information legislation has been raised by other speakers but this will be addressed. It is generally agreed that transparency and accountability are in short supply in all aspects of Irish life and it would be good to have a more widespread application of freedom of information legislation.

The Bill will remove the requirement to obtain the consent of roads authorities to carry out works. I spent time as a civil engineer working on the roads. This provision could cause problems. I know that obtaining permission to open a road requires significant co-ordination between different sections of the local authority as the body which holds the information on what lies beneath. Anyone who has had the pleasure of digging a hole in Dublin will know it is like spaghetti junction down there. Before laying a pipe of any nature we were required to read the drawings for all the different services. Very often the information on the drawings is not sufficiently accurate which means a contractor must depend on a clerk of works giving an exact location under the ground otherwise there could be a discrepancy of up to 1.5 metres in the location of the pipe. It is essential that the local authority is closely involved. I would be concerned if a private company were to be in charge of this service and was not required to have the consent of the local authority to carry out the work. It is dangerous enough allowing private companies to carry out this work unsupervised.

The week before last I raised a case with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte. A high pressure gas pipe is being installed to run from the North Wall to Coolock in Dublin. It is supposed to be laid 2 metres underground but it is only being laid at 1 metre. The engineering company carrying out the work has not priced the work to include laying the pipe to the correct depth. An attempt is being made to justify the fact that this pipe is being laid at 1 metre or 1.2 metre depth. Best practice decrees that the pipe should be laid at a depth of 2 metres. Dublin City Council has queried why the pipe is not being laid at 2 metres but the contractor is working for Bord Gáis and the city council does not seem to have a say. I hope it does not happen but I can say that one of these days other contractors will be digging down to work on cabling or pipework and they will come across this gas pipe. No harm happens if everyone is careful but that is not the way it works down there. The man on the digger will not know about the pipe and there will be problems. This large pipe is being laid on top of other utilities and it is vital that it is not damaged. It is not the end of the world if a water pipe is damaged because water leaks but a high pressure gas main is no joke. It will be more expensive to access the other utilities which are below this pipe. If I was being asked to lay PVC cable or communications cables or a water feed for houses along the route of this pipe I would look for more money to do the work because it would involve more work. The local authority should have more control over the private company working for Bord Gáis in this instance. I asked a question last week in the House and perhaps the Minister concerned will come back with more information. It is interesting that the mainstream media are not remotely interested in this story. They will probably not be interested until someone is injured. This story is obviously not sexy enough for them. Gas pipes do not sell newspapers. This is just an example of the local authority not being able to exercise as much authority over a private company as would be desirable. It is a concern, in my view.

The formation of Irish Water was discussed in the House last year. I asked the Minister, Deputy Howlin, whether he agreed that fixing the leakage in the water pipes would be a good idea before the installation of water meters. There is more than 40% of water leaking out of Dublin's pipes. The state of much of the pipework is unbelievable, through no fault of anyone in particular. They have not been replaced. For example, four inch steel pipes are all over the city but the bore in the centre is approximately two inches wide, not four inches. Corrosion has narrowed the bore to two inches. This is a significant problem.

My firm did work in the city centre for Dublin City Council. We came across these pipes and the water was flowing out of them. We begged the council to allow us to replace them but the council said it did not have the money to replace them. Those pipes are there still. I could bring the Minister of State for a walk all over the city centre and show him the location of leaking pipes which have not been touched. There is significant work to be done to fix the pipes in Dublin. Many pipes are laid very deep down. At a guess, the work could cost half a billion euro to fix the pipes in Dublin. That is a lot of money but there is significant work involved. It is very problematic and other services are in the way. It is a nightmare of a job. The notion of putting water meters on the houses before the pipes are fixed is poor economy.

Other speakers have complained about the waste of water and they are correct. Apart from the leakage level of 40%, I wonder if retrofitting has gone out of fashion. I ask how many toilet systems have a dual flush mechanism. I believe it is still a small number. Those systems need to be changed and that work could provide employment. God knows, we need to create work at the moment. My company was obliged to set up water harvesting systems in the housing developments we built and that was proper order. It is a brilliant idea whereby the rainwater is captured and reused through the toilets. This system could be put in place all over Ireland. It can be installed in any dwelling house. It is just a case of using a small pump. The water is fed into a storage tank and it is pumped back up into the attic water tank. This water can be used for flushing toilets, washing machines, car washing, for example. It can provide a massive saving of water. Not only would it be a great investment for the future, it is also environmentally friendly, it would create work and it would save money. The day is coming when water will not be cheap. The installation of such systems would be a very good long-term initiative.

There are so many matters which arise in the context of this legislation that I am obliged to wonder about the degree to which it has been thought out. Concerns have been expressed about the fact that the establishment of Irish Water will make it more difficult for Ireland to comply with EU environmental directives as a result of the fragmentation of management structures. The EPA will retain responsibility for water policy from a technical and environmental perspective and the Commission for Energy Regulation will deal with costings. I accept that this could work but I am not 100% sure it will do so. Obviously, ensuring a high level of co-ordination will present its own challenge. I take it that water industry assets will be transferred to Irish Water. Will this have an impact on local authority finances? Will there be a transfer of assets?

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