Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not think the Taoiseach fully understands the implications of handing over this personal information on almost the entire nation to a private company. Let me quote what Irish Water says on its website:

Irish Water may disclose the Customer's data to third parties in the event that it sells or buys any business or assets...if Irish Water or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case Customer data held by it about its Customer will be one of the transferred assets.

We all know that information is now an asset. I believe there are serious implications. Essentially, Irish Water is clearly defining people's personal information as an asset, its business asset. The Government has not thought this out. What information or guidance did the Government get before it put that into the legislation in respect of the consequences for people if the company is sold? The Taoiseach keeps telling us it is not going to be sold, but why is this on the website if that is not a possibility in future?

See this speech in context