Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have some sympathy for Government backbenchers because in the recent past, as a consequence of the ineptitude of the Cabinet, they have had to step out and defend Cabinet decisions with respect to the 11 U-turns that have taken place to date. The first was the suspension of the implementation of water charges until 1 January. The second was the introduction of the benefits package. The third was the allowance. The fourth was the introduction of the tax credit. The last three have been replaced with a new conservation payment, but the cost of administering it is still unclear despite parliamentary questions having been asked. No business plan was provided by the line Minister in the Department.

We are engaging in a very dangerous situation with respect to administrative costs. We then see the sidelining of the free allowances, the extension of the deadline for the application pack and the introduction of a flat charge per house being abandoned as a consequence of water metering. We have been told that there is and is not a bonus scheme, and there is a lack of clarity and transparency on that.

Not one extra cent in capital investment has been provided for Irish Water to implement the proposed €1.7 billion capital borrowing and investment programme. It has been completely undermined. The main reason for the organisation was to have a revenue structure in place, but that is impossible because of the resilience of people with respect to their resistance to Government.

On 23 October this year, I said in the Chamber that Irish Water was dead. Anybody who denies that should judge the contributions to the debate from the Government backbenches. People who prevented a debate this time last year and pushed us out the door in under two hours have absented themselves from the debate. Privately, in the corridors of the House, they agree with my sentiment. Irish Water is dead. The Government has spent a lot of political capital implementing a Fine Gael manifesto commitment of reform, which has been outstanding since 2009. It pre-dates the entry of the troika into the country.

The Government has implemented a programme of reform in Irish Water which was contrary to the proposal set out by the PWC report commissioned by the Government, and which explicitly advised it not to proceed with the model with which it did. The Government chose to ignore its own advice and proceeded in a manner for which it had paid extensive amounts of money to be advised against.

It handed over the operation of Irish Water to Bord Gáis on the understanding that it had the technical expertise in-house. Despite having those understandings and assurances, a significant amount of scarce taxpayers' resources was spent on technical expertise. What we have today is an unacceptable super quango. When we on this side of the House asked questions about it, we received blacked-out information and reports, and information requests through parliamentary questions have been resisted.

It has become a farce. Any detail with respect to sensitivities around PWC is blacked out with marker. We are seeing a crucially important natural resource being stripped away from local authorities. We had some accountability with respect to locally elected representatives. The Minister of State cannot argue that Irish Water is more accountable that the current system. He cannot say that the current executives of Irish Water are in a position to be democratically accountable to the people of the country.

They may attend private meetings with powerful people and Ministers in corridors, but they are not accountable to the Irish people and, in particular, the Oireachtas with respect to the important questions. Whatever happens, we need to have full transparency regarding Irish Water before an Oireachtas committee. The inner workings of the arrangement should follow the example of other countries where investments like this have worked relatively well.

I am disappointed that the Minister of State has not studied the example of Welsh Water, which provides a utility model which we should have emulated. As a party, we propose that any new organisation which was to be structured in this manner should have been mutually owned. The holding company should have been held by shareholders, who would have been customers, and could have democratically secured accountability from the CEO.

What we have is a large quango with no accountability and which lacks significant transparency. The delivery of this service involves going back to local authorities to ensure that their knowledge with respect to the transition from local authorities to the quango would be guaranteed. Highly paid executives from local authorities have been seconded or invited to work in a very expensive corporate model.

Water charges may be the norm in other countries, but the Government has completely lost the confidence of the people with respect to the delivery of this project. Irish people do not support the implementation of the model it has presented to the Oireachtas. There is a sense from the Irish people that the Government is driving this through in an arrogant manner when people are being pushed to the pin of their collar. They simply cannot afford this.

The implementation has been botched and the trust in Government has been lost. It is imposing domestic charges on houses where people are having difficulties with putting food into their children's lunch boxes. The Government is living in a bubble if it thinks people support this; they do not. It does not have the will of the people with respect to the roll-out of this project.

The Minister of State may be correct about the current state of our infrastructure and it may badly need investment but, contrary to the propaganda he has been spreading over the past number of weeks, there has been a substantial investment in water services in the country. There has been €5 billion invested in water services in the past decade.

I agree that water is a precious resource and we need to ensure safe and adequate access to it, but we need to do that in a way which guarantees democratic control. We can do it as a Government, we can include private bonds or we can deal with the European Investment Bank or strategic investment bank. They could get behind the Government and ensure we could adequately fund a new water organisation.

There is an absence of backbenchers in the debate. I understand only four spoke today. That demonstrates that the Government does not have their support. I know how the system works. Next week people will be whipped in here to go thorough the motions, knowing damn well that they do not support the policy. The Government does not have the support of the middle ground in society, and the backbenchers know that.

If the Government does not recognise this, it indicates and acknowledges the arrogance I highlighted earlier. It must recognise this is a source of concern for ordinary people who are worried about social cohesion. We are at a point where we can stop this now, go back to the drawing board and gain the support of the House in respect of getting a model appropriate to the people.

Enough is enough. We need to put up our hands and decide this will come to an end. The cost of this is unacceptable and harms society. The Government had the opportunity to do the right thing, but I am afraid it has not recognised that.

See this speech in context