Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to make a contribution to this debate. It is an important one with significant long-term implications for our society. Primarily, it is about water. It is about the right to water - not the water that falls from the sky but the water that is cleaned, treated and delivered to our homes. It is a human right but so also are electricity, housing and heating in general. All are scarce. However, it follows also that something so precious to human existence like water warrants protection. It warrants conservation. I am also a right to water man. I believe in the right of future generations to good-quality and sufficient water. I believe in the right of the current generation to clean water, a right denied to too many of our citizens. It is well past time that we tacked this problem as a national problem. Nobody disputes that we have under-invested in our water and sewerage systems to date.

It is time we sought to vindicate this human right about which people the length and breadth of our country have voiced such strong views. That is why this Government established Irish Water as a single entity to address this real and pressing issue. If we are serious about tackling our water problem, we could not leave it in the hands of 34 different water authorities competing for scarce resources alongside other pressing needs.

One of the more frustrating aspects of the water debate in recent months is the fact that the current state of our water supply has been used as a stick with which to beat Irish Water. The opposite is the case. The current state of our water supply is the reason we need Irish Water. We have not invested enough in water and that is evident across the country. We do not have the same problem with electricity despite the huge growth in demand in the Celtic tiger years. When problems emerge in the electricity supply system, they are fixed. The ESB raises its own money to fund investment and does so successfully.

With Irish Water, we are not taking a risk. Wholly owned Irish semi-State companies have a proud history in this country. The ESB transformed the lives of Irish people, particularly in rural Ireland, throughout its years of existence. The semi-State model is the natural choice for the challenge of delivering quality water and sewerage services in this century. A single operator, publically owned and controlled, is the model to deliver this country's water requirements into the future - water that will determine not just the quality of our domestic lives but our capacity to develop economically and grow our standard of living for all our people.

The package the Government unveiled yesterday for Irish water is a reasonable one. To reference the previous speaker, it is affordable - demonstrably so. The net cost to a single-person household availing of the water conservation grant will be just over €1 a week. The comparative maximum charge to be paid by a household with two or more adults will be just over €3 a week. To use an old benchmark, this is less than the price of a pint. The package also provides certainty about the future. It not only provides for a maximum charge up to 2018, it will provide future Governments with the opportunity to set further maximum charges commensurate with the needs of the time. The cap will be a permanent legislative provision. If my party is in government, our focus will remain on affordability. It will be for other parties to determine their own priorities and to seek support from the people on this basis.

The package also offers additional certainty about Irish Water remaining in public ownership. It asks this House to offer a solemn bond to the Irish people that they and they alone can ultimately change the ownership of their water company should some future Government decide to do that. The package preserves the incentive to use water efficiently. Those households whose metered usage is lower than the cap will be refunded by Irish Water in due course.

The package will keep Irish Water off the Government balance sheet. Why is this important? It is important because it is important to plan for the future. The reason why there has been under-investment in water for decades is because it has had to compete with other above-ground demands. As Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, I am conscious of the pressures on the public purse. They are many. The demands of our economy, people and infrastructure are huge and we cannot pay for them all at this moment. Were our investment programme for Irish water on balance sheet, it would put pressure on our capacity to invest in other needs like schools, hospitals, roads and public transport.

The problem with our water system has been a long time in the making. We found ourselves in an economic mess six years ago because we lived for the day and forget about the future. We have worked hard as a people to get ourselves out of this mess and if we have learnt one thing, it is that we do not want to make short-term decisions now. I understand why people have been fearful of this initiative. The Deputies opposite are right. Like every other Member on this side of the House, I hear the real fears and concerns of people. It comes at the end of an unprecedented difficult time for the Irish economy and all Irish people and has impacted on a huge number of people's living standards. Might things have been different had it been done earlier? I am not sure. In the Irish view, there is something intrinsically important about water. However, the Government has moved to allay and address those honestly expressed concerns. I believe that people understand why we need to change fundamentally our water delivery system and I hope and believe these measures will address the vast majority of genuine concerns people have.

I know it will not satisfy everybody. There are some who believe that water should not be paid for although they know that there is a real cost in providing clean water and proper sewerage. There are some who see water charges as the latest weapon with which to challenge their political opponents. These same people do not aspire to serve in government. As a consequence, they do not focus on or think of solutions, only opportunities. They accept no responsibilities. They are pseudo-revolutionaries. They fight with each other on a purity scale. Deputies Adams and McDonald are latecomers to this business. I advise them to be wary of their newfound friends who already describe Sinn Féin as the establishment lackeys in waiting. The calling of names is an all-important part of their game.

I have listened to the debate about double taxation for decades now. Its attractiveness to its proponents is easy to understand. It fits every argument, every cause and every loudhailer. Energy pricing is double taxation, VAT is double taxation, property tax is double taxation and the TV licence is double taxation - it goes on. They seek to destroy, not to create; to bamboozle, not to explain; and to terrify rather than assure. In recent days, they have taken to determining where and when citizens of this State can go and when they can leave. They cite their democratic rights and seek to deny those of others.

Their mandate is better and somehow purer than our mandate. Some of them seek to provoke gardaí. They think it is okay to verbally denigrate women. They have little regard for bystanders. They masquerade on the left and deploy the bully boy tactics of the right. There are some in the media who seek to decry this country and point only to its failures, never its successes. However, I never had truck with the kind of behaviour we have seen in recent weeks. We made a liberal democracy out of this State at a time when it was not fashionable to do so and we will not stand aside as a people and see this fundamental governing principle of our State undermined by those supposedly elected to uphold it.

The progress we have made in the last five years has been remarkable. We have gone from being the sick man of Europe to its poster child once again. I hope we have learnt enough to be wary of such a tag because it carries its own risks. Economic growth has returned, employment is growing and we have been able to make small reductions in the income tax burden and increase spending in a number of important areas. These are not economic clichés. These measures will impact on people’s lives in the future and, in some cases, are already doing so. If we are prudent and sensible we will be able to continue to make progress but otherwise we run the risk of going backwards. I readily accept that we have not yet been able to undo all the things we needed to do to correct our broken economy. That will take time, and most sensible people know that. In some cases we simply need to do things better than we have ever done in the past but, as a people and a society, we have turned a corner. Dealing with our water and sewage treatment needs for this century is a part of that ongoing challenge. Environmental change is not going away. We all know that. We will, for example, see the need to increase our spending on flood alleviation when the CFRAM report comes before the House in a number of weeks.

The decision to establish Irish Water was the correct one. Thereafter, I readily concede that we have made significant mistakes. This is an exercise which should have been conceived of in terms of years and decades rather than months. I commend the Minister, Deputy Kelly, for the forthright way he has addressed these issues since taking office. I commend his courage in standing by the principle that issues with our water supply are crucial issues of our time that need to be addressed. The package which the Minister has announced is proof that the Government has listened to the concerns voiced by the decent people who marched, contacted our offices and spoke to us directly. There are many who have characterised the Government's actions as a climb down or a change of heart. So be it. It is not the first mistake I have made in my political life and I am sure it will not be the last. Omnipotence is overrated. However, I can say, hand on heart, that throughout my political life I have sought to make all of my decisions in the long-term interests of my country and the people who elected me to this House. This set of decisions is just one more.

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