Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I asked Mr. McGowan why he was attending the meeting last night if he had not been appointed as regulator. He replied that the Minister had asked him to take a preliminary look at the figures. He is still not the regulator. Will the Minister confirm that he will appoint the regulator, even though he has been hiding behind a so-called regulator for the past week? Mr. McGowan does not have the statutory authority to act as regulator.

I refer to the Government amendment to the motion which refers to a regulator which does not exist, has no statutory basis and has not been appointed. When the Minister signs the statutory instrument to appoint the regulator, there is a period of 21 Dáil sitting days - seven or eight weeks - so the regulator will not be in place before next May. The Minister has been hiding behind a body which has no legal standing. The regulator does not exist and it has no role in this matter whatsoever. It is extraordinary that the Minister has not signed the statutory instrument.

Mr. Tierney confirmed that Irish Water has 200,000 commercial customers as of 1 January 2014. Every school, sports club, hospital, shop and bar in the country is paying its money to Irish Water amounting to €190 million. Each local authority has a different water rate. Irish Water is a single entity but it is charging different rates to commercial customers in each local authority area. The figures are different for the water going in and going out. I asked the regulator yet to be appointed if there will be one national rate of a separate rate for each county as is currently the case. He replied that he could not answer that question because he had not received the submission from Irish Water because he has not been appointed as regulator.

I asked if the Minister could answer that question but he said "No" because it would be his role to do that job. The Minister cannot even tell the people whether there will be one basic rate for water - a universal charge from Dublin to Cork to Galway. If he does so, he will be straying beyond his legal remit and into the role of the regulator who has yet to be appointed. If the Minister tries to give a rate, he will be interfering with the independence of that regulator. Neither the regulator nor the Minster can give an answer. We are spending €190 million of taxpayers' money but the Minister cannot even tell us on what the rate for water for those who will get their bills for €400 next January will be based.

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