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

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. It is worth noting the reason we are having this debate. It is taking place because of Government arrogance and incompetence. Last December, the legislation to give effect to Irish Water was rammed through this House in three hours. Every Fine Gael and Labour Party Deputy voted for the guillotining of debate on that legislation, thus shutting down constructive opposition from this side of the House. They knew it all. They knew how Irish Water was to be set up, what the pricing policy would be, the composition of the board and that the Commission for Energy Regulation was to be charged with the determination of prices. They did not care.

It was worth coming in to listen to the contributions of the previous speakers who now have a great sense of worry about the misinformation that is coming out. They are worried about the bonus culture, the set-up costs of €180 million for Irish Water and the hundreds of staff who have been employed by it who still do not seem to have any job to do. I can give the Minister of State an example from my constituency where major water pipes that serve half of County Westmeath have burst on two occasions in the past two weeks. A number of Irish Water staff have been allocated to, positioned and stationed in Westmeath County Council. Who were the staff who were called out in the dead of the night to fix the burst water pipes? It was not Irish Water staff but Westmeath County Council staff-----

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