Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The establishment of Irish Water and the metering of water is a huge mistake, politically, economically and socially. The Minister of State said that the metering of water will lead to a significant reduction in the consumption of water but reports show that in London and elsewhere that happens initially but then the level of consumption increases as people revert to their general usage level because they need to. Initially they are cautious and then their usage increases.

We should have had a national plan under which we would have examined every home and building in this city and then a system should have been set up where clean water pumped through the system, for which we pay dearly, would be used for drinking water only, and the remainder of the water needed should have been serviced by rainwater harvesting and other such measures. That is what should have happened rather than what happened, which has led to the privatisation of our water services.

At the last environmental committee meeting in Dublin City Council, Tom Leahy, a councillor who is an expert in water metering, said that not one house had been checked to date in the Dublin City Council area in terms of the information gathering that the Minister of State mentioned. Has that happened? Are its staff out on the street checking every home to see if they can be metered? How long will the metering process take? Are members of the public supposed to pay for the cost of putting that infrastructure in place?

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