Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We expect all State companies to operate in a commercial manner. These are technical deliverers of services. We have a very ambitious programme. It is not for me to give the Deputy the case for the creation of Irish Water but I am very strongly in favour of it. We have a situation where 18,000 individuals are on a "boil water" notice. There are a million households whose water is vulnerable because of inadequate supply. A third of wastewater plants are subject to concerns of the EPA and may fall foul, if I may use that phrase, of the European Commission. We need to invest in our water treatment and water provision system in an integrated way like the rest of western Europe so we need to have this.

Irish Water is unique in terms of pay because it is migrating from a number of local authority entities to one State entity and there is a transition that makes it unique. We need to have regard to that and also to the general principle that all companies in the State sector are expected to operate in a commercial way.

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