Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am absolutely disgusted, and I am being left with a poor view of the House as I leave for the Christmas break. I am very disappointed that the Minister of State, who I know is a fair-minded person, is party to this. We have been given three hours and 45 minutes to debate this Bill, which is an absolute bloody disgrace. It is the most significant legislation to come before the Dáil so far.

The Water Services (No. 2) Bill is a Trojan horse for privatisation of essential services. There are no safeguards in the Bill to stop it. The introduction of these water charges, which were planned by the previous Government, is an absolute disgrace. It was in the previous Government's national plan from 2011 to 2014 that €500 million per annum would be raised, which is exactly the same figure as that projected by this Government.

The Government's commitment to privatisation was borne out again last week with the sale of the important part of Bord Gáis. The part with the valve has been handed over to international capitalism. Does the Minister of State not understand this? The Government has handed over the valve and the buyers have the keys and the control. Does the Government not understand this? It has no right to do this. It was never discussed in the House. It is an absolute disgrace. The stand-alone utility company, which has been discussed for the past two years, will be put under the wing of what has been sold off. It is a disgrace.

No public service or body is safe under the Government. The Bill will asset-strip our local authorities, and this has been happening without a vote in any local authority. Not one section 183 has gone through a local authority. It is a disgrace. The Government has walked over the rights of 1,600 councillors. It is an absolute bloody disgrace. It allows for billions of euro in assets to be given to Irish Water without a single vote. This important Bill is being rushed through the Dáil in a few hours with no time for debate. Sinn Féin has tabled amendments, as have other Deputies on the Opposition benches, but the Government does not want debate. It is about asset stripping. A real debate would expose the phoney arguments the Government has put forward over the past two years on this.

Sinn Féin has been consistent in our opposition to the establishment of Irish Water and the introduction of water charges. Does the Government know that most households are creaking under the weight of debt and stealth charges? Does the Minister of State not realise this? Households already pay local property tax, management fees, domestic waste charges, fire charges and many other charges, and now they are being hit with this charge. In a cynical move, the Bill for domestic water charges will not be received until after the local elections. The previous Government planned to introduce them in 2014 and the Government has held them back until the last quarter of next year. The Minister of State knows why this has been done and I have told him. The charge will be introduced after the local elections when Government councillors have their feet under the table in council chambers. It is a move which the Government hopes will protect those who should be on the Labour Party benches but are not present.

We have opposed the establishment of Irish Water and the introduction of water charges based on simple belief the people should not pay two, three or four times for water. The Bill before us is a smash-and-grab of local authority assets and local democracy. It further advances the policy of privatisation and forces households to pay for essential services for which they have already paid. If passed into law the Bill will mean the public will pay three times: once in their taxes, a second time in funding made available to Irish Water from the National Pensions Reserve Fund, and a third time through water charges.

Not even happy with this attack on local authority assets, the Government has further plundered money from local taxation which should go to local authority funding. A total of €600 million has been robbed for this. This money should be for roads and services. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, and the Minister, Deputy Hogan, have made much play over the past two years about the fact that people will know what they are paying for and what they pay for is what they will get. They are on the record as stating this. This year I paid car tax, as did million of citizens throughout the State. I paid it for road maintenance, footpaths and lighting. I did not pay it in order for it to be taken and handed to a stand-alone company. Funding for water services has been cut by a massive 87% for 2014. The same water services will now be provided by Irish Water, requiring an investment of €240 million from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. This is on top of the €500 million given to Irish Water this year, as mentioned earlier, from the National Pensions Reserve Fund to install meters.

The previous Deputy is correct that the Government is well below 25% of the target it set for installations. Irish Water is stuck in the muck in many places trying to do this. The Minister of State should do the maths - €600 million from the motor tax fund; €240 million from the Department; and €500 million from the NPRF to install water meters giving a total of €1.34 billion. In addition, €300 million in commercial water rates and €500 million from domestic water rates will be generated in a full year. That amounts to approximately €2.2 billion. That is an expensive service, which is double the current cost, but this is a scam if even there was one. The Bill makes no mention of how much Irish Water will cost to run. However, one paragraph in the legislation permits the company to borrow a further €2 billion. The Government needs all that money to install meters and to run the God forsaken call centre it has set up. Not one drop or glass of water will be saved by it.

This paragraph is followed up by a commitment in the legislation on behalf of future Ministers to make grants available. This grant does not even require a vote in the House, as a simple application to the Minister will suffice. This is like Las Vegas and Irish Water and the fat cats running it have just struck the jackpot. The Bill makes no mention of how much the householder will be charged. That has been subcontracted by the Minister in order that he can hide behind the energy regulator.

Water charges are in place in Denmark, which has a population similar to our own at 5.4 million and, in 2007, the average cost was €715 per household. This Bill does not take into account people on low income or even those currently living in poverty. A total of 706,371 people live in poverty in this State. Their households will be charged the same for their water as a millionaire, which is shameful and unjust. Water charges will have an immediate and negative effect on low income families. When poverty levels and income distribution in Ireland are taken into account, it is obvious that water charges would have a significant impact on households and their income. The Minister of State does not have to take my word for it. According to a major report carried out by the British Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, a household spending more than 3% of its income on water charges is at risk of water poverty. Is he aware of that? The report entitled, Water Poverty in Wales and England, found that "UK households in the lowest three income deciles spend on average 3% of their net income on water bills whereas the average spend for all households is just 1%." The report further states: "Large water bills in relation to income do have the potential for causing significant deprivation."

The Taoiseach was on television the other night expressing how grateful he was to us all, particularly those who have suffered. They will suffer more and will find life more difficult because of what the Minister of State is doing today. How much will the water supply be reduced by to those families? He has not outlined this. Will it be reduced by half or to a trickle? Those families cannot afford water charges. They are short of food and heat as it stands. The Minister of State knows people in this position, as I do. We have loads of constituents who cannot afford to heat their homes or to feed themselves properly. They will now be denied water. They face a trickle of water, a trickle of food and not enough heat. That is a great lifestyle in this supposed republic.

It is shocking to think the Labour Party will stand over these tactics. The Bill, despite international evidence, does not even attempt to protect low income families and those who are vulnerable and makes no reference to ability to pay. We have tabled amendments in this regard but the Government will now allow us to even discuss them. All the Minister will do is threaten to reduce water supply to a trickle for those unfortunate households that cannot pay these charges. The amendments we intended to table would undo the worst excesses of this legislation. We seek cross-party support to make Irish Water more accountable to this House and to protect the vulnerable from poverty.

The Government would have us believe that we are the only region in the EU in which water charges are not levied but this is untrue. Just 90 miles up the road only a few miles from where the Minister of State lives, Sinn Féin has put its politics into action in the Northern Ireland Assembly and reversed the attempt by the British Government to introduce water rates in the North. Despite London's best attempts at bullying the Assembly into imposing water charges, Sinn Féin Minister, Conor Murphy, ensured no such charges would be introduced. Our alternative to this Bill is cost effective and efficient and can be implemented now. Sinn Féin calls for the establishment of a national water sector team within the Department to oversee governance of the water sector and capital investment in it. It would comprise city and county managers and it would be convened and chaired by Secretary General of the Department. My party proposes investing money from the National Pensions Reserve Fund in creating jobs that have a positive legacy and that will prevent leakage of up to 40% of the water supply and not just in setting up a call centre and putting a meter outside my door, where there is one already. The money is being wasted on meters and instead should be invested in upgrading an ageing network. The €500 million ring-fenced for water meters would fund the water conservation strategy for six years and it would be more appropriate to do that rather than invest in installing meters.

Sinn Féin supports the introduction of district metering as opposed to installing domestic water meters in every household. It is not necessary to install a meter in every household. District metering is used in the county in which I live. I have outlined to the Minister of State previously that this is cheaper and more effective because usage can be monitored and it is of great assistance to local authorities in identifying leaks. Sinn Féin calls on the Government parties, even at this late stage, to abandon their ill-fated domestic water meter scheme and instead to expand district metering. It would be more cost effective and would ensure water leakage is detected efficiently and quickly.

Currently the water sector is managed by the 34 local authorities. The move to Irish Water will not improve accountability or governance. A 1890 number is available to the call centre and I told the Minister he would do this a year and a half ago. Local authorities are accountable to their communities and this was demonstrated during the two big freezes in recent years. We did better in this State than the administration in the North. Local councillors were able to respond quickly with local engineers. Local authorities are able to meet local demands and can provide solutions to emergencies working with local engineers.

Last year the Minister bulldozed property tax legislation through the house. This Bill will have serious repercussions and it represents a huge shift in public policy, as it proposes to strip assets and charge people for their drinking water. It is shameful that the Government would ram this complicated Bill through the House and then head off for Christmas. The Bill should be rejected and replaced with a proper plan for the co-ordination of water services provided by democratically controlled local authorities and adequately funded by a progressive tax system.

This is akin to rural electrification but the implementation of the Bill is a farce. We have been given three hours and 45 minutes. We will have no opportunity on Committee State to discuss amendments. The Government promised a democratic revolution. While the Minister of State occupies a different part of the political spectrum to me, his party promised a democratic revolution but what we are getting is a democratic counterrevolution. What the Government is doing is a disgrace. The property tax was last year's Christmas present to hard pressed householders. The legislation was rammed through the House. Only one of my party's amendments was discussed in the House and it was rejected. No amendment tabled by any other party or Independent Member was discussed. The Government rammed it through and all its members then went on their Christmas holidays. This legislation is being rammed through this year and I feel let down by the Minister of State and the Labour Party because of what they are doing. I am disappointed by the way the House operates. My opinion of it is poor because of how it conducts its business. We should do things better and at this late stage the Minister of State should do the right thing, leave the House and go to the Taoiseach to tell him he will not be a party to this.

I know it does not sit easily with him.

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