Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to speak on the Water Services Bill 2014. The Bill provides clarity and certainty for ordinary people. From my conversations with members of the public, the issue with water is not that they must pay for it but that they want certainty about water quality and how much they will pay for it. In recent weeks, those who intend to pay the water charges have not been given clarity on what will happen in cases where people do not pay. Deputy Mitchell also raised this issue. Water charges should be linked with property or some other mechanism should be found to ensure people pay them. It is not right that some people will choose to pay and their neighbours may not pay. Clarity is required on this matter.

I have consistently supported the establishment of an entity such as Irish Water. Deputy Stanley stated that the various county councils functioned well in providing water services on which neighbouring counties co-operated. Most of the water supplied to County Kildare is produced by Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council. Ten years ago, a site was purchased for a company which intended to locate in County Kildare. It subsequently decided not to proceed, however, because Dublin City Council would not guarantee a supply of water. The rates Kildare County Council would have received from the company in question would have allowed it to provide many more services. As someone who is in favour of taking a national approach to the provision of water, I still believe we need an entity such as Irish Water. However, my problem from the outset has been with the way in which the company was established and went about its business and the personnel involved.

Deputy Fitzmaurice noted that installing water meters is a conservation measure because it allows people to identify leaks. It is extremely difficult to read the meters Irish Water has installed as they have a black cap. How will elderly people read their meters? I visited the websites of a number of water companies around the world to ascertain how they read meters and explain to meter reading to their customers. Irish Water's website features 12 pages on reading meters, three of which relate to how to read them and nine explain the reasons the technology allowing meters to be read from passing vehicles does not harm health. If Irish Water wishes to be user friendly, it should clearly identify to customers how they can remove the cap and read their meters.

I asked Irish Water if technology could be made available to allow people to read their meters using an iPhone or other device. This would be a conservation measure as it would allow people to track their water use and quickly identify leaks on their property. Irish Water's record on communications is poor, as is evident from its website. In southern Australia, one of the water companies' websites features a video of a fellow called Tim demonstrating how to read a water meter. This approach is simple to understand. I am also concerned that elderly people may not be able to read their meters as the ability to read meters is also a conservation measure and one which we should pursue.

The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government should consider the introduction of a grant to encourage water harvesting. The provision of grants to purchase water butts would help to sell the message that the Government is taking action on water conservation.

I fear that the board of Ervia, the company formerly known as Bord Gáis Éireann, will have many members with technical ability and few with common sense. Members of boards have a duty and responsibility to shareholders. In this case, the shareholders of Ervia are the Government and members of the public. The duty of the board members is, therefore, to members of the public. They have a responsibility to question all decisions made by the chief executive of Ervia and the company's constituent parts.

Life experiences are a source of many qualifications, of which common sense is one. Throughout the history of the State, members of State boards have not shown common sense and have failed to understand their roles and responsibilities. The boards of banks, for example, neglected their duty to act on behalf of shareholders rather than the banks.

I welcome the Bill purely because it gives people clarity. I understand another Bill will be published in the new year which may address some of the issues I mentioned. I welcome the fact that we will have a national company, because we have to deal with an entity such as this on a national basis.

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