Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing my time with Deputy Cowen. I will speak for only a couple of minutes.

At the last general election Fine Gael and the Labour Party came into government promising greater accountability, transparency and efficiency within the public service. The information that has leaked from Irish Water in the past few weeks shows that this like many other promises was flushed down the drain. The Minister arrogantly claimed that he does not micromanage his Department and that he was unaware of the breakdown of the €180 million made available to Irish Water. That is a grave insult to the people who elected him, who gave him the honour and privilege to serve in government. The Minister is the democratically elected person and he must take responsibility and be accountable for the money that his Department spends. No one believes that he was not aware of the €180 million expenditure and its break down. When the Minister says that he does not micromanage people he should not forget how he tried to micromanage a situation in Kilkenny, when he tried to prevent a family of an ethnic minority group from being afforded the opportunity to live in a local authority house.

This is the Minister who led us to believe that he has a hands-on approach. It is insulting to the people of Ireland for him to come in here and say that he was unaware. I reiterate, no one believes him. He talks about the great savings that will be achieved by this venture. The Taoiseach quotes savings of €1.2 billion, the Minister quotes savings of €2 billion. Can he outline and substantiate exactly what savings will be achieved? There are 4,300 staff working within the water services. How many of these local authority staff will be retained, or let go? How many will be retained to provide the service level agreements?

The Government agreed to pay bonuses to people who are already paid well to do their job, at a time when it was renegotiating the Haddington Road agreement which saw a reduction in the pay and conditions for people in front-line services, ambulance drivers, firefighters, nurses and teachers. That is what this Government sanctioned.

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