Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join my colleague, Deputy Cowen, in wishing the two Ministers present well on their elevation. I thank Deputy Cowen for bringing forward the Water Services (Exempt Charges) Bill and I speak in support of it. If a customer went into any shop and bought a product and on bringing it home found it to be in some way deficient or not to be in good working order, they would be entitled to their money back. The same standards should apply in regard to water.

If water is not of drinking standard then charges should not apply. It is plain and simple, that should be the end of the matter. Thankfully, in my constituency boil notices are very rare. However, incidents of poor water quality are not so rare. Apart from the proposal to charge 50% of the water charges for the first three months when a boil water notice exists and for 100% of the water going out no account is being taken of incidents of poor water quality where a boil water notice has not been issued. I will give an example. I received an email from a constituent last week saying that she had experienced three water outages last Christmas and that when the water supply was finally reconnected gallons of thick brown water had to be run-off, which process can take up to an hour at a time. Apparently this is a regular occurrence for her, her family and some of her neighbours. Who will pay for all of the water run-off in the kitchen, bathroom, toilet, etc.? The constituent further states that on occasion even after an hour of running off water she still has to boil it and that any clothing mid-wash has to be rewashed as the clothes are dirty brown. The question posed by that constituent is: "How can the Government charge for facilities we do not have on a constant basis? It is unfair to ask me, a pensioner, to pay for all the gallons of water that have to be run-off." That is a valid question. There is no boil water notice in that instance. Similarly, there is no boil water notice in many other areas around the country where the water quality is poor. This will have to be taken into account by the CER when the final charges are published.

I take the opportunity presented by this Bill to highlight the situation facing families with grown up children living at home. We all want young people to be well educated. The manner in which it is proposed to structure these charges means there will be no water allowance for a young person on reaching the age of 18 years. This means most students studying for the leaving certificate and third level students will not have any free water allowance. The assessed charge for a family of two parents and two grown up children living at home is €482 per annum. The assessed charge for a family of two parents and three grown up children living at home, which is not unusual or uncommon, is €584 per annum. That household would need to earn more than €1,200 gross in order to pay that water bill. That is staggering. If the CER has under-estimated the amount of water that people use bills will be considerably higher. The reality is that water charges of €600 and €700 per annum will not be uncommon for families in that situation. This is not what people are expecting. The average charge of €240 per annum, which the Government is putting forward, is bogus. The CER says it can honour that charge by including all of the vacant properties in the country and properties with a single occupant. That is dragging down the average. The assessed charge for two adults in a household will be €278 per annum. The CER saw fit to dramatically reduce the water allowance for children by 45% from 38,000 litres to 21,000 litres without publishing any evidence to back that up.

A lot of people are in for a shock when water charges bills arrive in the post next January. I believe people have been misled. I believe that the Government's claims about the average charge are bogus. The goal posts have been moved by way of a reduction in the allowance per household and a substantial reduction in the allowance for each child. It is a bit like saying that the cost of a bag of apples has not changed when instead of there being ten apples in the bag there will be six. That is the three-card trick that this Government is trying to pull in relation to water charges. The truth will hit home with the water bills arrive through the letter boxes next January. There is much talk about income tax cuts in the forthcoming budget. The Government will say that water charges are not a budgetary matter. The reality is that whatever amount of money is given back to people by way of income tax cuts will be more than taken back from them by way of the water charges that will come into force from 1 October.

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