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

Listening to the debate not only in the past few days but also in the past year, it is evident that the Government is now making up its policy on water services on the hoof and in panic mode. The idea that Members can come to the Chamber and try to convince themselves that this is a strategic way to address how we supply water to the people and businesses for the foreseeable future is farcical nonsense. I perused the document put forward by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, who wants to leave a legacy in terms of Irish Water but nothing in it indicates that there has been any strategic thinking about the provision of water.

A simple case in point concerns metering. The Government has installed €500 million worth of meters which will not be used for at least the next three or four years because it has been decided to introduce a flat charge. That is the Government's decision. The idea that there will be conservation or an incentive to conserve water is nonsense. That anybody can convince me or thousands of people that in some way water will be conserved when there is a flat charge is nonsense. In fact, it is insulting to suggest it will incentivise conservation. The only way to incentivise it is through the goodness of people themselves who make the effort to do it. There is no remunerative incentive available from the Government. People will go on using water as is. Some will be able to abuse the situation and use all the water they like while paying the same charge. There is no incentive. It is simply nonsense for anybody to suggest otherwise.

In its panic in the past few days in trying to arrest the difficulty it was in, the Government made yesterday's announcement. The Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, had the good grace to attend the Dáil for a period of time to outline it. We thank him very much and were humbled by his presence. We listened to him outline his legacy. The bottom line is that I will receive €100 from Irish Water because I have a private well and a septic tank. I will be paid €100 by the Government some time next year that I did not seek and which I do not really need. There are many others who might need that assistance in some other way. There are 700 people who are homeless in the city of Dublin tonight, yet I will be paid €2 every Saturday night for my bath. Why does the Government not supply the Radox while it is at it?

It is farcical to suggest this as a policy in the first place. It is ill-thought out and was ill-conceived. This is not a document that was forced on the Government. It was drafted in Bord Gáis Energy's headquarters in Cork by Deputy Simon Coveney when he was in opposition. He is now a Minister. That is why Bord Gáis Energy was to be its surrogate. The farcical nonsense to we have to listen here from time to time beggars belief. Why was the advice offered by PricewaterhouseCoopers rejected by the Government? The very people it sought to advise it on the establishment of Irish Water said linking it with Bord Gáis Energy was not the right way to go ahead, yet that advice was rejected. That is why the Government is in this hole. Now that it has stopped digging, it has decided to fill it in on top of itself. That is where we are.

For the next seven years every cent that will be collected by Irish Water will go to pay for itself before one leak is fixed or one lead pipe is replaced. That is the statistical fact, no matter how the Government dresses it up. It is impossible to extrapolate any common sense, logic or reason from this and the Government is now to pay me €100 to have a bath every Saturday night. On what planet do we live? The idea proffered is that conservation measures will be implemented and that we will have a state-of-the-art water system, but that is not the case. We will have a state-of-the-art water collecting system, but we will not have a state-of-the-art water delivery system. The Government will have Úisce Éireann, Irish Water, in its fine offices as a bloated entity that will pay for itself for the next seven years. That is to what the full revenue from water charges will go. One can work it out any way one likes.

We now have €500 million worth of meters in holes in the ground with no incentive to use or even read them. We do not know what contracts Irish Water has entered into and cannot find out. It is unbelievable we are standing in this Parliament discussing an entity and unable to find out what contracts it has entered into, how much they will cost and what contingent potential liabilities face the State.

The Government can dress up the accountancy figures any way it likes and has tried to do so in pretending it has obtained EUROSTAT clearance. We now find out that it does not have clearance but may obtain it by next March. Then again, it may not.

Either way, if it goes sour, the State will be liable.

Today is a very sad day given the hypocrisy that is offered here as being constructive, a legacy, investment in infrastructure and building for the future. No generation of politicians can adjudicate on their own success impartially and pat themselves on the back. The generations that come after them will adjudicate, fairly or otherwise, on whether their policies were successful. Although this is no vantage point, from where I stand, Irish Water and the Government, since it bullied this legislation through the Dáil this time last year, has been nothing but a gratuitous insult to everybody in this Chamber and everybody who has been protesting and expressing views. These concerned people are looking aghast at the hypocrisy and deceit of the project. I am still to be convinced that it is anything other than dressing Irish Water up for sale in years to come.

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