Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on this. Much has been said already. As a first time backbench Deputy, I have found it frustrating waiting for yesterday's announcement. Much frustration has been building up over recent months among Labour and Fine Gael backbenchers and the general public over the lack of clarity and understanding of what Irish Water was going to do and how much people would have to pay. This frustration boiled over and we saw the mass protests. Like everyone else in the Chamber, I have no issue with people protesting, which they have done for many years. However, what happened last weekend went over the top. Although 95% of people in this Chamber, across all parties, will condemn what happened, a few may not be over concerned about it, unfortunately. We are going down a very dangerous road when we hear comments such as, “We decided to release her,” or, “It would not have been too bad if she had been held for 12 hours.” Nobody can stand over it and it is dangerous territory.

We must move on from here, and the Government must try to understand why it happened and where the frustration came from. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, has spelled out exactly what Irish Water is about and the concept behind it, which I support. I support the idea of paying for water. I come from a very rural constituency and for many years I was on a group water scheme, where people paid for their water. There are people in some parts of rural Ireland who do not understand what the row was about because they have been paying for water for 40 years. In many such cases, the Department would pay €140 per person on a scheme, which is the €100 conservation grant, and everyone would pay for the water they use. Earlier, a Deputy said water meters did not work. I know of a scheme where the price per person was extremely high, in the hundreds of euro. The scheme members decided to meter water use in every house and their bills dropped substantially to an average of €30 or €40. Meters work, and their roll-out should be continued. The problem was that we said we were installing meters without saying why or explaining the difference they would make. This has led to much of the frustration and concern.

While 100,000 people took to the streets and there were mass protests, yesterday's announcement was a recognition of the protest and all the concerns that were raised. The battle over Irish Water has not been won. While yesterday was a step in the right direction, much more must be done. The concerns about PPS numbers, ownership, confidence and clarity have been acknowledged. I know from speaking to many people, including people with young families, that people were concerned because they did not know how much they would have to pay into the future. I am delighted that yesterday ended this. Irish Water’s biggest days as a semi-State company are ahead of it and it has much work to do. We are asking people to pay for water, and the money will feed into Irish Water, which will then, hopefully, have the money to build up the infrastructure.

I keep hearing from people who say we should pay for our water service through a progressive tax system. These are the same people who say we should fund our health service and education through a progressive tax system. Reports from certain bodies state that Ireland has a progressive tax system. This year alone we will borrow €6 billion just to pay the bills. We are trying to work our way out of a situation. Let us not look too far into the past. We know where we are, and we must try to build our way out of it. Although our system could perhaps be a bit more progressive, it is disingenuous and unfair to the people to say we can do everything they want through a progressive tax system when the facts and figures do not stack up.

Many public representatives will say they know the people are angry and that they are also angry. Although the people might say they like the fact that their public representatives are angry, there will come a time when they will ask what the Opposition representatives would do differently, how they would fund the water supply and what it would mean for income tax or the universal social charge. It is very important that we do not continue along this road. We are setting out our plan. The Opposition Deputies may not like it, and that is fair enough, and we must accept that we made mistakes. However, a time will come when Opposition politicians will have to spell out exactly how they would pay for all these services.

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