Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

People will realise that they will face such rates in four years. I heard the Minister mention earlier that he does not follow election cycles, but this is responding to the election cycle. Since the people took to the streets, the Government has become frightened and was forced to announce so-called concessions, first for people on social welfare and then for certain tax bands in last month's budget. It has been forced into numerous U-turns but has failed to stop the building momentum and has had to make further significant concessions today. It is a major climb-down by a Government with a large majority.

Government Members hope the smaller bills that people will face in 2015 will encourage more people to co-operate with the metering programme and, most importantly, to pay their bills when they start to arrive in letterboxes next April. That is obviously a gamble on the part of the Government born out of increasing desperation, blind panic and fear that it might end up facing the electorate sooner than planned, with the albatross of Irish Water and the water charges hanging around its neck. It has been clear to the Government over the past month and more that it needed to do something major and come up with major concessions if it is to have any hope of staving off the protests and the anger of people in the streets while surviving.

We have seen that peaceful protests work, including those at the ballot box, particularly with the by-elections and local and European elections. The changes mark a humiliating climb-down on the part of the Government, but they will not be seen as enough. People want to see the back of these charges, and the continuation of Irish Water as currently constituted means that the amount to be taken through domestic and commercial water charges from 2015 to 2018 will not be enough to feed the hungry beast.

Over the past year or two, many Ministers have repeated that the stated aim of the establishment of Irish Water - I remember a former Minister, Phil Hogan, saying this over two years ago - was to upgrade infrastructure and fix leaking pipes, but that will not happen, because the amount of money to be brought in through household charges will only be enough to pay and maintain the corporate structure, including the 400 staff and particularly those 20 staff in the higher echelons with salaries of over €100,000. There are also call centres and other corporate structures to be fed. Irish Water has already soaked up an enormous amount of public money from the taxpayer, who is being asked to effectively pay again through water charges. Not only was over €80 million given to consultants - who must be the worst consultants in history, given the advice Irish water is acting on - but €530 million was taken from the National Pensions Reserve Fund, NPRF, which is now buried as meters outside our houses. There is one outside my door which replaced one that was already there. What was the purpose of this, when there will be flat charges for four years? How will the money be repaid if Irish Water, through water charges, cannot raise enough money over the next four years to do so? How will the books be balanced? The Government is trying to get past the next election.

This does not take into account the costs for local authorities of running day-to-day services under service level agreements. On top of the NPRF money, the State has also promised to allocate another €200 million in capital funding in the recently published Estimates. That will have to be increased, I presume, given the concessions that have been announced today. The water support payment has been changed to a water conservation payment, which will be given to every household. Along with the raid on the NPRF, we saw almost the entire amount taken in from the local property tax this year given to Irish Water as a subvention. How can we believe anything the Government states? The former Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Phil Hogan, told me and other Deputies in the Chamber many times that the money was to provide for libraries, parks, footpaths and public lighting through the local authorities, which have seen their allocation through the Local Government Fund decimated in the past number of years. Irish Water has also received money from the Local Government Fund, which originated in the motor tax fund. The money from the local property tax was supposed to be for footpaths, lighting, parks and libraries, but it was not used for this, as €486 million was shifted in 2014.

The Sinn Féin alternative is to abolish Irish Water as it stands, because the public and Deputies on this side of the House have lost confidence in it as it has stumbled from one crisis to another. We would create a new public body with a much greater input from democratically elected local authorities and with the input of those who have long years of experience dealing with issues and problems related to the provision of water. Most importantly, this body would be accountable to the Minister and the Oireachtas, with the Comptroller and Auditor General having an important role in auditing and overseeing accounts.

If the flat charge and the lower rates for many households can be seen as the carrot part of the Government’s plan to save Irish Water, it has also referred to the stick being used for those who continue to refuse to pay or who cannot pay. No doubt the Government and Irish Water are hoping that by the time the first bills are issued next spring, enough people will pay and people will have been softened up with the Tesco-style giveaway today. Perhaps I should say "supermarket-style giveaway", as it may not be fair to Tesco to use the other term.

The Government hopes, therefore, that not many people will have to be dealt with using the punitive measures outlined today. These measures include landlords making deductions from tenants' deposits. Do Members on the Government side of the House know how hard it can be for a tenant to get a deposit back from a landlord? The poorest of the poor will see their deposits raided.

As the Government did not foresee the scale and increasing momentum of opposition to the water charges, only a brave person would predict the impact of today's announcement. Only when all of the details are known of the scale of penalties in six months or more will it be possible to make a judgment. The Government may be confident that it has bought much-needed breathing room but only time will tell.

The Government is to do away with the requirement to return the forms sent by Irish Water and will ensure the destruction of documents containing the PPS numbers of those who have already returned them. It is clear that PPS numbers are no longer required, but they were required previously and people were bullied into submitting the details. The flat charge and other concessions mean people no longer must prove they are eligible for allowances for children aged under 18 years.

We all want water to be conserved, both in households and the overall system; we put forward proposals on water conservation at the time of making our detailed submission. When the legislation establishing Irish Water went through the House, much was rightly made of the enormous level of waste in the system. Approximately 41% of water is wasted between the source and the user and I would not be surprised if this figure increases, given what has happened. Many leakages have been caused in the installation of water meters and the disturbance of old piping, particularly in parts of Dublin. We all agree that water conservation is a real issue and that something must be done about it, but surely the fact that the Government has changed its mind and is introducing a flat charge owing to mass public pressure contradicts the claim that conservation is the main reason for metering.

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