John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have an opportunity to support Deputy Cowen's motion. Fianna Fáil has consistently opposed the Government's Irish Water model. As we all know, the legislation was rammed through the Dáil before Christmas without any real scrutiny. The Minister seemed to be happy to go along with that. These functions have been taken from democratically elected local authorities and placed with Irish Water, which is a new super-quango that has been set up by the Government. I read with interest yesterday that the Minister, Deputy Howlin, has said he intends to abolish a huge number of quangos. The Minister, Deputy Hogan, seems to be hell-bent on setting up a new quango.

The Government decided to give responsibility for Uisce Éireann to Bord Gáis. The process involved in this decision was never made public. We do not know why others were ruled out. Who else was interviewed for this position? The Minister said it was given to Bord Gáis because it had the expertise and the operational capacity to deliver Uisce Éireann. It turns out that Bord Gáis did not have that capacity or expertise after all. Advisers and consultants have had to be employed to advise Bord Gáis at a cost of more than €100 million. Either the Minister was misled by Bord Gáis, or he clouded himself to the reality of what was going to happen. The Secretary General said yesterday that the Department was aware of the costs involved since March 2013. It is quite amazing that neither the Minister, Deputy Hogan, nor the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, were informed of this. It is hard to believe. When I served as Minister of State in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, representatives of a number of boards, including Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Bord Bia and Coillte, came in on a regular basis to brief the Minister on the costs involved in running the service for the year. It is hard to believe that the Minister and the Minister of State were unaware of what was happening in this case.

My personal opinion is that the decision to take powers from our democratically accountable local authorities as part of the establishment of Irish Water was wrong. The local authorities had the engineering expertise and the staff on the ground. They have the facilities in place to collect charges. They have the experience of collecting water rates, rents, business rates and property charges. If they has been asked to provide this service on a county-by-county basis, they would have had the wherewithal to do so. Obviously, the Minister thought differently. There is no doubt that the quango which has been established will be in Government ownership for a small period of time. I suggest that this is the first step on the road to privatisation. Perhaps the Minister will clarify this aspect of the matter in his reply. Will Irish Water be sold off in the same way that it is proposed to sell the national lottery and Bord Gáis? Coillte would have been sold as well if it had not been for the interference of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. It is obvious that this Government is more interested in privatising than in providing services to the people.

See this speech in context