Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Up to 2017. I do not how long metering will take so I do not know how long the service agreement will last. Will it be from today or next year? Will there be a one-year arrangement? I do not know and many of the staff do not know either. Many of them do not know where they will stand in 2018 considering that the Minister of State is saying the first agreement is to last until 2017. Is it likely to continue thereafter? I do not know.

What provision is made in the central government funds for local authorities in regard to the costs associated with personnel involved in water services? An absolute information deficit remains, yet the Tánaiste stated earlier today that the Opposition is bankrupt of reasons for not supporting this Bill. He is pretty bankrupt himself in his own head at the Cabinet table. Perhaps the four-person brigade is looking after this matter at the Cabinet and the Tánaiste is outside the loop. I do not know but I would have believed that he would have known the exact costs. I estimate the exact cost to be €2.2 billion. How much of this will come from the National Pensions Reserve Fund? How much is to be capitalised and over how long? Can the Minister of State give any indication to anybody in the State as to the likely cost? If we knew this, we might know what the end user will face. When will the billing procedure be in place? When will people know? Given the current rate of progress, I hazard a guess that they will definitely not know before June 2014. The Minister of State knows the implications of this, that is, if the first year and half is anything to go by.

When poverty proofing, all the issues must be on the table before any guesstimate can be given, never mind a hard and fast rule. What are the implications for those in group schemes? What exercise has been carried out to determine the implications? Those who have a private source of water are completely outside the loop with regard to the proposals in question but many group schemes use a public connection. Water quality and safety are paramount and are more important than anything we discuss here. We saw the detrimental consequences of threats to water quality when there was a problem with cryptosporidium in Galway some years ago.

Many directives effect local authorities and group schemes. Are they being followed to the letter? Will the new arrangements result in new demands on the schemes? If so, will this increase the maintenance costs associated with them?

In the event they cannot be maintained and the initial commitments to users cannot be fulfilled for whatever reason, what obligation is the Government placing on Irish Water to take them in charge? Will that be done purely on the basis of cost-benefit analysis or on the basis of a revenue stream? They are the very issues that would be considered by anyone who sees an opportunity down the road to buy this company. Many would have said before that was never a likelihood for Bord Gáis and it is currently under way. We fear that because of the way Irish Water is being configured under Bord Gáis, the potential for it to be sold in future is real. If the Minister of State can tell me what Irish Water's obligations will be in the short-term with regard to group schemes, it might offer some comfort to those within those schemes on any potential sale in future.

The Minister of State could not possibly have done the necessary poverty-proofing of the proposals and their implications for households in future because no one in the Government has confirmed the absolute costs associated with the establishment of Irish Water, the upgrade of the networks, particularly in Dublin, and the maintenance contracts that have not yet been concluded. How can the Minister of State tell the House this has been poverty-proofed and no one will find this body wanting when it comes to the provision of water? He cannot even tell us what the free allowance targets might be, which would go some way to resolving the question.

Against that background and the commitment the Government gave when it announced this in the first instance, we are no further, even though this interim Bill has been introduced and the Government wants us to blindly support it. I am sorry but that will not happen. We have no problem with the concept of charging for water and we support it, but not in the manner in which the process is being undertaken. Despite the best efforts and intentions, especially as a result of leakage and problems with the network throughout the country, we have what many would describe as an inefficient service. I do not want to walk through the "Tá" lobby with the Minister of State as a first step in a process that will lead to charging people for an inefficient service.

See this speech in context