John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----will get a decent water supply or service. It is still the case that despite the tens of millions of euro in taxpayers' money pumped into the setting up of Irish Water, not a cent has gone towards fixing a leaky pipe or addressing serious problems with water quality in certain areas.

I am told by members of the local authority that if a constituent makes a complaint about a leak, he must contact Irish Water, which in turn contacts the local authority. The local water service man must then assess the leak, obtain three quotations for fixing it and send the details back to Irish Water before a decision is made on repairing it. Obviously, it is bureaucracy gone mad.

There is confusion surrounding the water charges for the 1 million households that will be still without meters when charges commence in October. We have heard all about the accelerated metering programme. The fact is that more than half of the houses in the country will still be without a meter at the end of the year. Irrespective of how the Government spins the matter, there will be flat-rate charges for hundreds of thousands of households for at least the first year. The Minister did not state today, but will perhaps clarify tonight, what he means by "flat rate charge". How much will a person have to pay if his house has no meter? It is important that the Minister be up-front and spell out what people will have to pay.

We are concerned that the commitment to a water allowance for children and the cap on charges for people with special needs is a very short-term commitment to salvage votes for Fine Gael and the Labour Party in the upcoming local and European elections. The Minister refers to special concessions but he did not state whether they will extend beyond 2016. Are they just short-term concessions? We all know of the series of reductions brought about by the Government affecting concessions for old age pensioners. I refer to the telephone and electricity allowances, the withdrawal of medical cards and all the areas that have been seriously hit. We would like the Minister to spell out clearly whether the special allowances will be short-term or long-term.

We have consistently opposed the Government's Irish Water charges model, which was rammed through the Dáil in order to avoid real scrutiny. This entirely new layer of bureaucracy, populated by highly paid consultants and which will involve unwarranted bonus payments, will be funded directly by water charges on ordinary homeowners and businesses across the country.

When the Minister established Irish Water, he ignored all the advice available to him. This was the case when he awarded the contract to Bord Gáis. The PwC report that was commissioned by the Government itself advised against using an existing State agency such as Bord Gáis as it would incur costs due to the level of external support required to plan, manage and execute the integration of Irish Water into an existing utility. The Government went against this advice and set up Uisce Éireann.

As Deputy Collins stated, the public is very concerned and annoyed about the significant payments to the employees of Irish Water. They are very concerned about the bonuses being paid to the senior staff in the organisation and they perceive a lack of transparency and accountability. Despite the efforts of every Deputy in this House to obtain some information on the costs involved in setting up Irish Water and those associated with consultants and advisers, no one seems to be able to get the exact figure from the Minister. I, along with the public, believe there will be an enormous cost. Some of the figures being bandied about indicate costs of well over €100,000 and €150,000, so the Minister needs to clarify the period for which costs will continue to arise.

The Minister, whom I saw on television today, made very clear that the regulator will have the final say. I have always had serious concerns about regulators having the final say-----

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