Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. There is one central question, namely, how did the water consumers in this country get stuck for €85 million in consultancy charges? It is as simple as that. An effort has been made by backbenchers, in particular in the Labour Party, to make the Minister the scapegoat. He has big and broad shoulders, is well used to that and is able to take it on the chin. However, this was a Government decision which predated the Minister's appointment as Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. It goes back to what Fine Gael did in opposition when it sought to create the whole concept of NewERA. The Minister will be familiar with who the author of the NewEra document was. It was a former chief executive of Bord Gáis.

Questions are rightly being asked as to why Bord Gáis was given this onerous task. At the time, the Minister and his Government colleagues said the reason Bord Gáis was involved in all of this was that it had expertise. The Minister said yesterday, and Deputy Coffey said earlier, that it saved the State €85 million. I would like to get some of the details on how it saved €85 million. Did it deploy staff to the operation of Irish Water and if so, what are those staff doing now? How was it that Bord Gáis was in a position to have all these staff available to do that charitable deed?

The expectation and belief was that it had systems, expertise and the model to set up Irish Water-Uisce Éireann without replicating or reinventing the wheel. However, the Government set aside a budget of €180 million and it handed it to Bord Gáis to establish Irish Water. There were no economies of scale or savings and it is reprehensible that Member after Member has trooped in here to say what a great job Bord Gáis has done. I do not believe it has done a good job. It has robbed the consumers of this country and it is now clear that it did not have the expertise.

I cannot understand why the ESB was not considered. It has a much wider network, has a bill going to every house in the State and has asset management systems. There is no big difference. We have still not found out what the real cost is from Bord Gáis, whatever it presented to the Minister. Deputy Cowen will have a thing or two to say about what Bord Gáis presented to the Minister at a later stage.

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