Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Those who have come to live here adapt to the Irish names and use them, just as we use words such as "sauna", which is a Finnish word, and "boutique". Most people can adapt to given names. I seek a firm commitment from the Minister that when this legislation passes there will be one name for this company, Uisce Éireann, which is to be used by all whether they are speaking the first or second official language.

As my colleague Deputy McConalogue said, we do not support this Bill. Unlike many Deputies, I did not favour the abolition of water charges many years ago. I considered it a mistake. Ultimately, as I have often pointed out, if diesel or petrol were free, a great deal of diesel or petrol would end up on the forecourts of garages rather than in vehicles. I believe people should pay for excessive use of water. If somebody has the luxury of having a swimming pool, it should not be filled with drinking water at the expense of taxpayers - people who generally do not have that type of resource. However, I also believe in the concept of a free allowance. If a free allowance is to be provided, it must be provided for in the legislation. As we debate this legislation we should know that there will be a provision for a free allowance based on the occupancy of houses. It should be given as a statutory right.

However, if the Minister does that, the basis of the Bill falls apart. This company is being established as an independent commercial subsidiary of Bord Gáis. If the Minister is going to give a free allowance and is not going to provide a significant Exchequer subsidy, which was always given for water because it was seen as a basic necessity that should be paid for from general Government expenditure, he will find himself in a contradictory situation. The figures speak for themselves. Aside from the €500 million in capital costs, there is an operational cost of €750 million, of which €200 million is recouped at present. Even if the Minister were to save €100 million or so by reducing waste, there is still a big gap that cannot be filled by charging for domestic water.

We must have clarity. Is the Government committing itself to continuing to fund, out of the taxes we pay, the people who are careful with the water they use, so they will get water for free? This is particularly important for people living in urban areas, who do not have the same opportunities to provide themselves with alternative sources of water. People living in rural areas, particularly those living in one-off houses, have many opportunities to provide themselves with rainwater or other sources of water for use in toilets and so forth. They could decide to use the water that comes from the main only as drinking water. The free water allowance is critically important, therefore, for people in urban areas.

I accept it is attractive to borrow money to invest in infrastructure. I also accept that there are people who would be happy to see money borrowed for such investment because the quality of their water is so poor that they are anxious for the provision of water to be expedited. However, I am not convinced we would advance far beyond the major mains under this policy. I suspect that the concentration of Uisce Éireann for a long time to come will be on providing water mains in the main urban areas. That will hit rural areas. Under the old system, rural areas were guaranteed some type of fair play, because every local authority, including those in Mayo, Leitrim, Sligo, Kerry and west Cork, was entitled to a share of the money provided. Very little consideration has been given to this issue in the Bill.

I favour a national water grid. The idea of not having every small water scheme as a free-standing scheme but having schemes progressively linked across the country makes a great deal of sense. If there is a breakdown in the system, it will be possible to back-flow the water to compensate for the problem. We saw what happened in Galway when there was a problem with Cryptosporidium. It is a naturally occurring event, but the problem was caused by the failure of one of the filters to take it out of the system. The delay in resolving the problem was largely due to the fact that a final full connection had not been made between the county systems and the city system, something that has since taken place. It is now a great deal quicker to change the supply and bring in alternative supplies. There is sense, therefore, in each system becoming part of a national grid over time.

While there is a certain amount of sense in placing responsibility for the national grid of pipes under a new company, I am very worried about giving a national company responsibility for maintaining and upgrading the small pipes serving small clusters of houses in very rural areas such as Malin Head at the far end of Donegal. We will be told that the company will get around to these pipes, but not quite yet because there are greater priorities involving services to greater numbers of people. There would have been a great deal of sense in following the example of the roads network and placing the national grid under a national water services company while leaving the local grid under local authority supervision. Local authorities are much more likely to see the importance of the small cluster of houses. I am thinking of places in the north west of the Cavan-Monaghan constituency of the Acting Chairman, Deputy Joe O'Reilly, Cavan, which will not be in his constituency soon.

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