Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I continued:

The existing cost of local authorities for maintenance of water services, based on the research that [we] have done, appears to be approximately €600 million per annum. [This is incorrect, as it is actually €1.2 billion.] There is that figure, the figure for metering which I ask the Minister to clarify and the charge to be imposed, and then one must measure that against the Minister's statement that he will have to supplement Irish Water in the coming years before it becomes self-sufficient. At what level will the Minister supplement Irish Water?

The crunch question was how much the Minister must commit towards Irish Water next year. The answer from the Minister was as follows:

A provision of €10 million is provided to set up the structure for the establishment of Irish Water in 2013. Legislation to set up Irish Water on an interim basis will be brought forward pending the full implementation in 2013. The cost of metering will be paid out of a loan from the National Pensions Reserve Fund. It will not be included in the Department's Estimates as metering will be rolled out over a number of years.

We are no further on today than we were a week yesterday. We have had people put in front of the media, and we have heard from the CEO of Irish Water, the Department and the Comptroller and Auditor General. We have had them all in, yet nobody referenced that meeting or those questions. The point I am making is that the Minister gave the impression that it was approved by Cabinet and that it was to follow the normal course after that. It did not do so, however, as it went to the Economic Management Council, which is made up of two Fine Gael and two Labour Party members, and we know who they are. The Taoiseach was aware of this too, as he said yesterday, because he is on it. However, the Taoiseach was not aware that the configuration and the costs associated with the set-up were done in such a way that we will never get answers, according to the Minister's statement last night.

I say this in the interests of openness and transparency, which is sought by many others on this side of the House and, I am sure, many on the other side of the House, especially in the Labour Party, if I was to listen to its members. Deputy Michael McCarthy, the Chairman of the Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht, said on Sunday that freedom of information should apply to Irish Water forthwith. Another Labour Party member, Deputy Michael McNamara, said something similar, and Deputy Charlie Flanagan said there were questions to be answered, as did many members of the Cabinet. I ask all of them now, if they really mean what they have been saying for the past week, despite the charade we have had with committees and everything else, to support this motion and support the intent behind it. If they really mean what they say, they should vote for the motion, take the bold step, let us put this sorry saga behind us and try to allow the public to give the sort of respect that a company such as Irish Water deserves or should deserve.

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