Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Despite €180 million of local property tax being invested in Irish Water, not a single cent of this was spent on fixing leaking pipes or addressing problems with quality in many parts of the country. In the Minister's remarks, he might address the issue of water charges for the 1 million households that will still be without meters when charges kick in next October. Despite an accelerated metering programme, more than half of the country's houses will be without meters at the end of this year, which is the end of the first quarter of charging. As such, there will be a flat charge for hundreds of thousands of households at least until they get meters, which will possibly be as late as 2016. They have no certainty about this flat charge.

The commitments in respect of water allowances for children and a cap on charges for people with special needs are vague and have definitely been determined in a pre-election period. No detail of the medical conditions that will qualify people to receive discounts has been provided. This will require consultation between the Ministers, Deputies Hogan and Reilly, and the Commission for Energy Regulation, CER. We have seen the hames being made of discretionary medical cards by the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly. Will this be a repeat of that fiasco?

The Minister, Deputy Hogan, stated that €40 million would come from the Department of Social Protection. Will it be from existing budgets or must there be a Supplementary Estimate for that Department? Many of the measures to be undertaken by the Department will be tagged onto the household benefits package, which the Government has driven a coach and four through in every budget since entering office in 2011. There used to be a telephone allowance; there is none now. There used to be an electricity allowance; it is much reduced. I predict that the €100 water allowance will go the same way as the telephone allowance as long as the Government is in power.

The debacle of Irish Water's establishment and the manner in which the regime, limited as it is, had to be dragged out has undermined public confidence in that utility company. Water is essential and there is much to be done in terms of conservation and investment, but forcing a model on people that is completely based on charges instead of investing in the service or encouraging people to conserve is not the way to go. However, it is the way the Minister has outlined.

Those houses that will not be metered face serious questions. Apparently, they will be assessed based on the number of adults and children in each house. Had the Minister listened to the public debate at any stage, he would have heard that adults differ, children differ and, depending on age, people have different usages. He would also have heard medical experts this evening discussing various needs arising from medical conditions.

For an unmetered house where there is no ability to measure or to see the impact of conservation, it is all pi in the sky. These houses need some certainty. Will they be the ones that pay for the Minister's deal with the Labour Party? Will the fact that they do not have meters mean they can be played around with until such time as their meters are installed, making them the profit centre for Irish Water in an attempt to alleviate the political pressure on the Labour Party?

The Minister has yet to provide the CER with the policy framework it needs to proceed with the exact pricing structure. He is delaying four key items on which it is waiting, including the level of the free allowance, which he has decided will be 30,000 litres. Given that the average usage in a house is 140,000 litres, this allowance is a far way off. Even when the 38,000 litre allowance for under 18 year olds is added, the overall allowance is still far short of what many families will use, not in a wasteful way or one that requires conservation, but in the normal day-to-day family home scenario.

There is a vagueness about the level of public subvention. Irish Water's questions and answers document, which was released this evening, highlights this vagueness as well as the difficulties it presents to Irish Water in calculating a pricing structure. The Minister has announced a first fix policy, which is interesting and welcome, but this will use some €50 million of the extra €200 million investment under the capital programme. There will be a no fix policy for other repairs and people will need to pay for them to be done. Given the state of much of the infrastructure, will they still be required to pay if the faults are not theirs?

The linkage between low-income household supports and the household package and the vagueness around the funding of low-income household supports raise questions and doubts.

The estimated bills, as outlined by the Minister today, will be approximately €240 per household. This figure could increase under various economic models to €580, depending on public subvention levels. This is similar to the property tax. The Government introduced it, then doubled it. It will be subject to further increases in the coming years.

For many householders, the difficulty lies in the fact that they are paying local service charges and will soon pay water charges. The combined amounts will hammer households, making them fear for their ability to pay this charge. They must know what they will get in return. If people are in metered houses, they need to know that they will no longer have access to the information contained in the meters after next August because it will be the property of Irish Water. This is unlike the case of electricity meters, where people can see the information. What kind of information will bills give them on their usage? What certainty will there be for people who engage in conservation and follow the advice that sages in the Minister's party have been giving in various media outlets this evening? Some of the most unlikely Fine Gael Deputies have the zeal of the Green Party as regards water conservation. If people follow that advice, will they be able to see it working? Will they have access to Irish Water's information?

Given how quickly the metering programme has proceeded to date, is there not a case to be made for extra investment to ensure we reduce the number of unmetered households to below the expected mark before billing begins? Can Irish Water not use some of its money wisely for a change? The water charging system must be efficient and coherent. It must encourage water preservation while creating a sustainable funding base so as to secure the supply of water for business and domestic users. However, households cannot be expected to pay for a service that does not deliver or give them information or clarity on the costs.

Consider the different water leakage rates around the country - 16% in south Dublin and, I gather, 60% in Kerry. The national leakage rate is 40%. This shows why there must be a coherent, sustained and ambitious roll-out of mains renewal and serious investment. A case must be made for the Minister to invest further in the network and to consider various funding options, for example, the European Investment Bank, EIB, and other available schemes. Focusing investment would create employment. Then the Minister could tell people that the money being spent on Irish Water was being spent in the right way.

The Minister has not given the precise details on the formation of Irish Water or its expenditure on consultancies. Its set-up costs have been incredibly high, yet not a single cent has yet been spent on the network. The lack of information and wastage of resources have left public confidence in Irish Water low even before it begins in its role. There is significant public confidence in many of our utilities, for example, ESB. In order for people to have such confidence in Irish Water, we need clarity as well as scrutiny of its expenditure, employment practices and plans on rolling out this project.

The way in which Irish Water was established is coming back to haunt the Minister. The debate was rammed through the Dáil on its last sitting day in 2013. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, promised to amend the Bill, as Irish Water was initially not subject to freedom of information requests. This situation needs to be clarified so as to build confidence among the public that their money is being spent properly.

Will the Minister clarify a couple of issues? What are the prospects for unmetered houses?

What is the highest amount they will pay, or is it in the Minister's gift to establish a maximum amount they will have to pay? Second, where will the €40 million come from within the Department of Social Protection budget? The Minister, Deputy Burton, in her parish newsletter in the Sunday Independentlast weekend, promised that there will not be any cuts in the Department of Social Protection budget but less than 48 hours after it was published, we have a €40 million-----

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