Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I know all about it because I was present and I was a witness in the court as well.

What constitutes imprisonment and what constitutes protest? Imprisonment and peaceful protest are two totally different things. The sooner Deputy Ruth Coppinger and her colleagues realise that, the better it will be for democracy in this country. Certainly anybody who has been elected to represent the people of their area in this Parliament should have full respect for the other people who have been elected democratically to it. There is a way of going about it and it must be proper, peaceful protest and not something they describe as peaceful when they then behave in a totally different fashion.

I hope that when people examine this package, they will decide for themselves whether we have listened properly and have done a reasonable job in responding to the people's concerns. The first instance is the issue of simple and affordable bills. I have already given an indication of what the charge in Northern Ireland is, namely, a multiple of what the proposed water charge here will be. It is also a multiple in the United Kingdom. I met parliamentarians from the UK here tonight. They thought it was hilarious that we could be talking about a charge of €60 per annum for single adult households and that we would have a cap of €160 for everybody else. I do not think there is a country in Europe that would consider this to be anything other than an affordable, fair, simple and straightforward charge. It brings a degree of certainty to the issue such that there is now no confusion. There are two capped charges that stand for the next four years.

At the same time, there is the option of households moving to metered charges. Where households feel they can reduce the bill through a metered charge, they are entitled to do so. The estimate that has been given by the Minister is that approximately 50% of households would reduce their bill by moving to a metered charge if they were to reduce their water usage by 10% to 15%. I hope this provides a degree of certainty and addresses the question of cost. Of course, each child is still entitled to 21,000 litres regardless of whether or not they are in college.

I am record as saying I would prefer if we had a referendum to enshrine the Irish Water service in our Constitution so that it would remain in public ownership and would never be privatised. That is still my preference but what we have introduced has certainly strengthened the current situation. It is true that the existing legislation, which is the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013, prohibits the shareholders of Irish Water - the Ministers for the Environment, Community and Local Government and Finance and the board of Irish Water - from disposing of their shares. That is stated categorically in the legislation. A concern remains that some future Government might private Irish Water and that the legislation could be changed but it is proposed to introduce totally fresh legislation which will state very strongly that a referendum would need to be held if there was any attempt to privatise Irish Water or the infrastructure of the service being provided. It is being stated categorically that privatisation would require a prior referendum and an amendment of the Constitution. It would be a very reckless Government that would come into this House and propose that this legislation be changed to do away with the commitment to retain Irish Water in public ownership. This is a very substantial commitment. If one takes it in the context of the possibility, as we have seen in the past, of a number of unintended circumstances arising from referenda that have taken place in this country and the cost of holding a referendum, which I understand is in the region of about €20 million, one can see that it is something that should be considered. It has strengthened the matter to a very considerable degree.

Why is all this being done? It is being done because the current system is flawed and its continuation is dangerous. There are 28,000 households in County Roscommon that still have "boil water" notices. In parts of County Kerry there are ten or 12 times the level of lead in the water. Cryptosporidium is commonplace in the summertime and interferes with the tourist industry as well as endangering the health of people, particularly in the west. The 34 local authorities have been unable to provide a quality standardised service of clean water and to deal with wastewater. Despite the fact that we are an island and present ourselves as a green, clean and fresh island with healthy food, we have one of the worst records in Europe for pollution with so much wastewater flowing into our rivers, lakes and seas.

I trust that this proposal by the Government will receive a fair hearing.

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