Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this important debate, which is timely when one considers that in the next few weeks people the length and breadth of this country will for the first time ever be billed for water.

It was interesting to hear members of Government highlight and confirm in their contributions last night that the proposed water charges are too high. They are correct. Prior to the local elections in May a charge of approximately €240 per annum for a household with two adults was advocated. The estimated charge is now €278 per annum, which is an increase of 20% on the previous figure. A household of two adults and two children in third level education will pay approximately €500 per annum, which will mean an additional €10 per week for each family, many of whom cannot afford it. Why are the charges so high? They are high because money is needed to fund the super-quango that is Irish Water, a quango established at a cost of €180 million and at a time when this Government, upon taking office, promised it would abolish all sorts of quangos. The 2011 PricewaterhouseCoopers report commissioned by the Government advised against the use of an existing State agency such as Bord Gáis as it would incur costs owing 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 the explicit advice of its commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers report.

I would now like to focus on the issue before us today and the proposed charges for poor-quality water supply to more than 30,000 households across Ireland. Deputy Feighan is correct that €17 million was made available to County Roscommon. We welcome that, but what have the people of Roscommon had to put up with over the past number of years? Previous speakers said there had been no capital investment in the area. That is wrong. In the period from 2000 to 2010, €4.6 billion was invested in improving the infrastructure of the water network. My question to the Government is this: what does it have against the people of Roscommon? Last night, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, said that they need not worry because the draft water plan would be finalised by the Commissioner for Energy Regulation in the next number of weeks. This morning, Elizabeth Arnett, head of communications at Irish Water, said there was nothing new in what was proposed and that water charges had been known since August 2014.

2 o’clock

Is it not amazing that the Government chose the bank holiday weekend to publish the draft pricing? It sought submissions during the month when the Dáil was in recess and when most people in the State take their annual leave. Is it not quite amazing to come in here and listen to the likes of Deputy Bannon urging the CER to listen? He said he had made a submission. I remind Deputy Bannon that he is not on Longford County Council anymore and that he is a member of a Government party. As Deputy Feighan said, we live in a democracy. The people of this country put their faith and trust in Fine Gael and the Labour Party in 2011 to govern and implement national policy decisions. The Government will have an opportunity in less than 20 minutes to implement legislation that will ensure people who cannot brush their teeth, drink a glass of water to take their medication or make a cup of tea because of substandard water coming out of their taps will have their problems addressed. We are not saying water should be free for everybody; what we, including Deputy Cowen, are saying through this small Bill is that we should ensure that when there is not high-quality water coming out of the taps, people will not have to pay for it. This is quite fair.

It is incredible to listen to Government Deputies questioning the rationale of what is quite logical legislation. If tomorrow one bought a car that did not work, one would go back to the garage to get one's money back. One does not pay for something that does not work, and one does not pay for substandard produce. Why should the 21,000 people in Roscommon, the people in Newtowncashel in County Longford or others on the island pay for a service that they cannot utilise?

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