Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The country is coming out of a recession. I do not accept the comments from the former Minister of State who piloted the relevant Bill through the House that Irish Water is as he says. I do accept, as everybody does, that some of the issues that were raised in the initial stages of the establishment of Irish Water were not as they should be. Clearly, there was not the clarity of explanation and understanding given to people as to what this was about. What it is about is putting in place one of the largest and most fundamental entities in the history of our State to provide proper water structures and proper water quality for households, businesses and industry. Yes, there is a contribution to be made. Deputy Martin's colleagues in Sinn Féin do now want any domestic water charges and are putting it back on the public bill at a cost of €850 million in taxes or whatever without any explanation.

This issue must be dealt with. We cannot go on paying €1.2 billion per year for the production of water, with 40% of it leaking away, thousands of people on boil water notices, dozens of treatment works not up to standard and kilometres by the thousand of inferior pipe work. All of that has to be dealt with, and it never was dealt with because the Deputy and his party, for the main part, during its time in government over the past 25 years, did not deal with it. Irish Water will be able to borrow to invest and fix these problems, and a contribution is being asked of people. That is why the Government gave a direction to the regulator such that there would be an allowance per household and per child, with extra to be given for those living alone. The 340,000 people on the household benefits package will receive extra allowances, and those with particular medical needs will have a cap put on what they pay.

I recognise that any charge that is put on people is not easy to accept, but this is an issue that simply must be dealt with. As the Deputy well knows, in huge areas of the country people have been paying for water for 50 years, by way of regional water schemes and whatever else. Where water goes out, if it goes into a public sewer, that must be paid for because it has to be treated. If it goes into a septic tank for which there is a charge and a monitoring system, it will not have to be paid for because it does not go back into the public system. There are many multiples of thousands of households in that situation. It is not nice to have to pay a charge. It has not been easy for any member of the Government in the past three years to have to stand up and impose charges in order to get us out of the catastrophe in which the Deputy's party left us. I am glad to see that economic commentators are now projecting growth for this year and next of between 4.5% and 5% and in the following years in the mid-threes. These are positive things.

The Government will consider very carefully the question of the structure of payments, namely, how payments can be made and when they can be made. We must help people to understand that water is an absolutely essential commodity and something not to be wasted. As I said, 40% of it is leaking away every day. If the Deputy filled his oil tank in Cork every Monday only to find that 40% of it was gone by Wednesday, what would he say? He would say the problem must be fixed. Everybody can contribute to fixing the problems with our water supply, in one way or another. There are allowances built in for the categories of people who need them most.

See this speech in context