Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will speak first. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue. The Minister of State should not be surprised that this issue is very topical on the floor of the Dáil because it is topical in every household throughout the country. The reason is because the way the Government has gone establishing Irish Water and the way it will charge people for the provision of water services in their homes is simply unjust. Great debates have taken place in this Chamber in previous times but the bottom line is that this issue is affecting every household. That is the reason it is critical that people get a buy-in to how we fund our water services in this country. The consequences that have flowed from the proposal put forward by the Government to establish Irish Water are that the public simply have no trust in Irish Water. They see the bonus culture endemic in the organisation. The organisation does not seem to understand what is happening in terms of the cost to families or the cost to the organisation of providing water services and installing water meters. It denies there is a bonus culture and that bonuses will be paid, but we all know that they will be.

The Minister, Deputy Kelly, has been pirouetting around the issue in recent days, saying he will strong-arm Irish Water and bring it to heel, but the point is he is the kicking the dog he owns. He should be trying instead to direct Irish Water to a position where it no longer exists and to return to where we were in terms of providing water locally or regionally and in an efficient manner. The first bills Irish Water will send out next year will be ones to pay for itself. They will not pay for the installation of the water meters, repairs of water leaks or the upgrade of facilities to provide water services and the treatment of wastewater. None of the bills that will be sent to households will pay for any of that work, rather they will pay for consultancy fees and the cost of the employees' salaries and bonus payments. That is the reason there is huge anger about this.

I was never one to go following the crowd around the street but the bottom line is people of all shades of political opinion and none are genuinely very exercised about this. It is not about the fact they do not like paying. No one volunteers to post money to the Exchequer or a local authority but they understand that the provision of services costs money. They are adamant, however, that they get value for money spent, that charges should be fair and that the pricing model should take account a household's ability to pay, but none of this has been thought out. The reason it was not thought out is that this time last year the legislation was rushed through the Dáil without any debate and in an arrogant, parliamentary strong-handed way using jackboot tactics. No one was allowed to raise an issue on Second or Committee Stages. We were not allowed to raise the issues we were elected to raise. For all these reasons, the Government is in the position it finds itself. That is why the Minister, Deputy Kelly, is trying to disassociate himself from Irish Water and show he will bully it and sort it out.

The bottom line is that it was established for one reason only, namely, it was in the Fine Gael manifesto. It is was a central plank in its NewERA document and a central plank of the strategy of the Minister, Deputy Coveney, when he was the spokesperson in that area. He was the one advocating a national utility and it was to be a national utility for one purpose only which was that taxpayers would fund its establishment, pay on an ongoing basis for the use of its water services and, over time, it would be dressed up and packaged nicely, effectively, and efficiently and sold off to private equity.

That is what Irish Water was being geared up for in the NewERA document. It was to be attached to a larger utility such as Bord Gáis or some equivalent that would have the expertise to ensure that in its infancy Irish Water would be able to move smoothly. More interesting is that PwC was the consultancy firm that warned the Government that if it went down this road it would have many problems with the establishment of Irish Water. It identified many reasons not to go down this route but the Government persisted knowing well that there was strong advice to the contrary. That is why this motion is before the Dáil today and why there were thousands of people on the streets of Dublin last week.

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