Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy said people had been on boil-water notices for the past 12 months. In some cases, they have been on boil-water notices for up to 12 years, so to have the Deputy throwing that out, given his background, borders on the ridiculous. The reason this utility was set up was to have a framework whereby we can invest in water provision for the future and ensure that this ridiculous situation never happens again.

I am concerned about a number of things. First, the Deputy made statements about the previous Minister misleading people. Those are big statements that need to be justified. The second issue is that Deputy Troy is saying he does not accept or believe the independent regulator, which has made its judgment regarding the set-up costs of this utility. Of course I accept the regulator's decision, and it would be appropriate if Deputy Troy did so as well.

See this speech in context