Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

A spokesperson for Irish Water was asked on RTE this morning about the possibility of Irish Water being privatised in the future. She replied that this is possible because the 13 March legislation insists that is impossible. That is not true. The Lisbon treaty has ensured that any private company wishing to buy a private utility when it suits will have that option. The notion that Irish Water will not be privatised is bunkum. If the Government has been so keen to solve the problems associated with water, why did it not give the local authorities the necessary funds to deal with the problems? A total of 40% of our water is leaking into the ground. It would take approximately half a billion euro to fix the problem and this would be a help. There is a waiting list of waste treatment plants and many of these projects have been put on hold in order to facilitate the situation with regard to Irish Water. It would make far more sense to invest in water services and the local authorities were well placed to do the work and it is outrageous to say otherwise. The local authorities are not responsible for the bad state of water; the fault lies with central government's refusal to give them funding to deal with the problems.

Instead of fixing the pipes and building the waste treatment plants, the Government's top priority has been to spend €500 million on installing water meters and giving consultants €85 million even though Bord Gáis was supposed to have all the answers and consultants would not be needed. It is clear the Government's top priority is to create an entity that will be saleable. God help us when Irish Water is privatised because we have only to look at England where a multiplicity of companies run the water services. Their profits have doubled in the past ten years and executive pay has gone from £220,000 to £500,000. The citizens pay for those salaries. When Irish Water is privatised it will be very expensive and it is outrageous that the Government would sell out something as vital as water to the private sector.

See this speech in context