Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In common with a number of colleagues, I have already acknowledged in this House that mistakes were made by the Government and Irish Water in regard to this project. It is important to put up our hands. Those mistakes relate to the ambitious scale of the project, its timescale and the speed of its implementation. A particular difficulty was the complexity of the charging regime, with even those who were happy with the principle of paying for water confused by the details or taking the view that the proposed charges were too high. Communication, particularly by Irish Water, was often poor. I welcome, therefore, the clarifications and corrections the Minister has given the House today. I welcome the simplicity of the new regime, with two separate charges for persons living on their own and for families of two or more people. I welcome the certainty provided by the provision that charges will be capped until 1 January 2019. This gives assurance to people that they will be able to budget in the coming years. I welcome, too, the provisions on affordability. In combination with the recent budget measures such as the changes in the threshold for universal social charge and the higher rate of tax, which put money back in people's pockets, the water charging regime becomes more affordable.

I was contacted by only two people who took part in protests in Galway. They are genuine people and they both marched for the same reason, namely, out of their concern regarding the requirement for householders to provide a PPS number to Irish Water. No matter how much reassurance I tried to give, I could not convince them this was a good idea. In that context, I welcome the change in this particular requirement, with householders now liaising with the Department of Social Protection, which is the owner and controller of PPS numbers, in order to avail of the €100 conservation grant.

A common concern among those opposed to the proposed water charging regime was the issue of privatisation. It seemed to me, as colleagues noted, that people's fears in this regard were being stoked up. Having said that, I welcome the clarification that a future Government will have to remove the relevant provision from the legislation. It would be a very brave government that would refuse to put that question to the people.

I put a query to the Minister for Finance in recent days regarding the liberalisation of the water service market and whether there is any requirement under EU legislation in this regard. The response indicated that there is no European legislation requiring Ireland to liberalise its water services market. The Minister pointed to a communication issued earlier this year in which the European Commission confirmed that it would continue to show full respect for treaty rules governing the European Union obliging it to remain neutral in regard to national decisions governing the ownership regime for water services undertakings. I appreciate that people have genuine concerns in this regard, and I hope today's clarification will allay these fears.

I also welcome the water conservation measures and the grant that will allow people to cut back on water. I disagree with those who have said the meters are a waste. There are still opportunities to save money by using less water than one would pay for under the planned new rules. The statistic the Minister highlighted about 22 houses that have meters installed and which were leaking 1 million litres per day, enough to run Gorey town, was startling. We can see the saving that can be made with proper metering and investment, and I see it in areas of Galway where district metering has been installed to make it easier to identify leaks within the system.

One of the most important issues, and the rationale behind Irish Water, is that it can invest in our broken system in the towns where there are problems with wastewater. Some 42 towns are listed, four of which – Kinvara, Carraroe, Spiddal and Roundstone – are in my county. Irish Water can invest to ensure the bathing water and drinking water standards laid out by the EU regulations are met. It is important we continue this investment. So much needs to be done. Dublin is on a knife-edge and requires an investment of €500 million. Many people who are happy to pay bills will want to know that everyone else is also paying. I welcome the measures put in place to ensure compliance.

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