Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I do not accept the Deputy's contention that the biggest new public utility company in a generation, Irish Water, is a white elephant. The status quois the difficulty rather than what will happen in future. The status quois a fragmented, under-invested delivery system for the most important of public resources to people, which is water. There are 34 local authorities using €1.2 billion in taxpayers' money to provide an unsuccessful and inadequate system. There are 18,000 people on the public water supply with a boil notice or other restriction in place. An Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, report has stated that remedial action is required on 16% of supplies at risk, including schemes such as the Dublin and Cork supplies. There are constraints on capacity for the people of Dublin, which constitute a third of the population, as we experienced last year. Unaccountable water loss amounts to 40% of capacity, which means 40% of our water leaks, and 36% of water treatment plants were not up to EPA standards. If we do not take remedial action, we will probably face legal action in the European courts. That is the bad system in place and this Government is determined to find the wherewithal to invest and improve the process. That is the genesis of Irish Water, which will bring a series of benefits for us.

The Deputy asked a number of specific questions. He asked if Irish Water is currently within the ambit of the freedom of information system and I am sure it is, as I signed the order, which became operable during the course of last month. It is completely open to the freedom of information process. The Deputy asked if there will be issues in the migration of 34 local authorities and staff to a new single consolidated entity, and of course there will be. If we had taken a different course of action, these would have been the difficulties raised by the Deputy. There would be talk of not giving fair deals to each local authority and the workers instead of having a proper system to migrate local authority workers into an integrated entity.

We are now working on the next phase and it will be a matter for the regulator to determine the pricing structure. That will be done in good time, as promised by the Taoiseach, to allow people to make the budgetary adjustments that will be necessitated when charging for water commences at the end of this year and bills arrive next year.

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