Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Members opposite for their input today.

Notwithstanding the reasons the amendments are before us, we believe that amendment No. 3 is not appropriate. The purpose of section 24 is to provide the commission with the necessary powers to prepare for the performance of regulatory functions and to advise the Government on the development of policy regarding the regulation of water. It is important that this work commences as soon as possible. The impact of Deputy Stanley's amendment, if it were to be agreed, is that they could not commence that work until after 1 January 2014.

Amendment No. 38 proposed that a poverty impact analysis should be carried out by the Department of Social Protection before this section is commenced. I assure the House that work is very much underway to examine all of the issues, particularly regarding affordability and water poverty, and the Department is in active consultation with the Department of Social Protection and other stakeholders on this matter.

I refer to some of the points raised by the three Members opposite. All of them - Deputies Stanley, Cowen and Catherine Murphy - are particularly concerned about the issue of privatisation. The Bill is an amendment to existing legislation which forbids the sale of any water asset to any private person or persons, in other words, the legislation which the Bill is amending already protects the State or local authority water assets from privatisation. In the second Bill, which will come before the House later in the year, there will be a legal guarantee to give an absolute assurance as best we can that there will be no question of privatisation arising as an issue. I would agree with Members opposite that the supply of water is a fundamental activity of any state. The ownership by the state of water infrastructure is the rule rather than the exception, and that will be the position here. I am not aware of any other model, apart from that in the UK, of which there is significant criticism.

Members also mentioned the issue of transparency on costs and raised questions about audits and future plans. It is generally agreed that €1.2 billion was the figure in 2010, for both administration costs and capital investment. Clearly, we need to improve the amount of capital investment in the water supply.

Deputies Catherine Murphy and Cowen referred to the Bord na Móna proposals for augmenting the water supply for greater Dublin area. Deputy Murphy lives in a constituency where there has been significant investment by private enterprise to improve the water supply in terms of the industry that is involved. I believe they are paying €29 million in advance to the local authority for future water supply. So there is an issue there regarding improvement. Everybody accepts that the infrastructure needs to improve and it is no secret that to have state-of-the-art water services nationally we need to invest €600 million per annum on capital improvements in order to meet the future demands of the greater Dublin area and to mitigate climate change issues that arise. As Members have said on Second and Committee Stages, 42% of all the water we treat, pump or store never reaches any household. It is referred to as unaccounted water. A significant proportion of that comes from leaks. Infrastructure, which in some cases is 150 years old, needs to be radically improved.

We need transparency on the cost of all these issues - everybody wants to know how much they will pay. That will be determined by the energy regulator and not the Government, Bord Gáis Éireann or Irish Water. The regulator will need to get the business plan from Irish Water, and examine all the existing running costs and the future capital investment. In the United Kingdom when the regulator decides a price it remains fixed for five years and if there is a significant increase in inflation, it can adjust it within the five-year period. All of those issues will be dealt with openly, transparently and accountably. There is no question of people not knowing what it will cost. There is no question of not having total transparency and accountability from Irish Water to the regulator. When the regulator makes proposals, they will be put out for public consultation and then there is also the question of making its determination. An important part of all our administration here is the accountability for Irish Water to the Oireachtas. The legislation provides for accountability through the annual report to be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. I have been a member of Oireachtas committees in the past. The committee will have the power to call representatives of Irish Water to appear before the committee if an issue arises of concern to it. That will be a very important part of the democratic accountability process.

Deputy Stanley and others referred to the accountability to local representatives on the ground. This is a critical issue. Deputy Catherine Murphy pointed out that some of her constituents had no water supply and did not know whom to contact - I have also come across such people in my constituency in the past. Local authority staff have a very proud record of being able to respond in times of emergency. The accountability of Irish Water to local authority representatives, the Oireachtas and most of all to public is a critical issue. The structures will need to ensure that accountability is there and that elected representatives - Deputies, Senators and members of local authorities - have the same access to the management team in an area as they have at present. Where the service levels exist Irish Water will be in a position to ensure that the local elected representative has that number. Irish Water will be accountable to elected representatives on the issues that arise.

The second piece of legislation covering many of the governance issues that have been raised will be properly teased out here in the Oireachtas. Many people are concerned about how to resolve a possible conflict between the water infrastructure requirements for a local authority development in a city, town or community and any Irish Water plan for improvement of water infrastructure. One possibility would be that many of the planning decisions might be made at a regional authority level. That framework will need to be spelled out in fine detail before any charges will commence. The Bill before the House is effectively enabling legislation to allow the regulator to commence its work and to set up the company.

Deputy Cowen asked for the estimated cost of the metering programme. It would be inappropriate to release estimates of the cost of the metering programme in advance of completion of the ongoing competitive procurement process. It is intended that the metering programme would be funded through borrowing on commercial terms from the National Pensions Reserve Fund, and that is from the Fianna Fáil national recovery plan, published in 2010.

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