Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this important debate. There is little doubt unfortunately that Irish Water and the provision of water services have been unnecessarily in the headlines over the past 12 months and in the past number of months in particular. The only reason for this is that the Government failed to deal with the potential crisis in regard to the delivery of clean drinking water and the disposal of effluent from houses.

It is clear the Fine Gael Party decided in 1997 that it would establish a utility. There was nothing wrong with that in principle, but it decided from there to set it up in a particular way. To date, I have heard no comprehensive explanation as to why the utility Irish Water ended up as the surrogate child of Bord Gáis. I do not want to cast any aspersions on Bord Gáis or its ability or inability, but this has not worked out well. There may be some belief - there certainly was on that side of the House - that Bord Gáis brought certain expertise to the table. A Senator from the Labour Party made wilder allegations - ones I will not make - suggesting the Government was hoodwinked, but in stronger language than that.

From the start, the cost was entirely out of kilter with the expectations of all concerned. There was a belief that if we were partnering with or operating under the auspices of a utility like Bord Gáis, there would be considerable cost savings. This was the response of the Government at the time as to why it had partnered with Bord Gáis in the creation of this entity. It was suggested that many of the systems were already in place and that it would be just almost a matter of changing the label. There were billing and inventory systems, and payroll and asset management systems in place. It was not until Mr. Tierney went on the Seán O'Rourke programme and, being the dutiful public servant he is, outlined the cost structure the Government had known all along that people became concerned. That was what kicked off the greatest concern in the minds of the public and of people in this House who had failed to get answers here about the cost of the establishment of the utility. I do not want to say the €180 million spent was all a waste, but there has been no justification for that kind of spending when the expectation was that Bord Gáis could deliver many of the systems, technology and people skills at a much lower cost. In essence, there was no need for the involvement of Bord Gáis at all, because the Government ended up developing another entity from the start.

The notion of paying for or investing in the development of the infrastructure was put forward. Obviously, this needs to be upgraded. Parts of the country as we well know are still on boil water notices. This was brought to the attention of the public during the course of the Roscommon by-election. People there will remain on a boil water notice for some time. I would have thought the moneys set aside for the establishment of Irish Water and for digging holes in the ground to put in water meters - €500 million - would have been better spent upgrading our treatment systems, the pipe network and sewerage treatment plants which required immediate attention. It would have been better to invest in that way before starting to charge for water.

Most of the people I meet do not object in principle to paying for water. It is a utility and service people expect, need and want, but they do not expect this haphazard approach to its delivery. Therefore, attempting to introduce a charge before having a service delivery model in place was a retrograde step. The fact the Government is pushing ahead now with the introduction of charges, albeit for a lesser amount than originally envisaged and with greater certainty for a period, leads me to believe it is still putting the cart before the horse. Moneys were available, but the Government wasted them in the establishment of the utility and the installation of the water meters.

It is clear better technology was available to identify leaks without requiring the level of cost involved in installing meters. The only excuse the Government can give for the installation of meters is that they will identify where the leaks are happening. The Minister knows there is technology available that could be deployed at a far lower cost that would identify where the leaks are, leaving the Government with money and with no need to go back to citizens to collect a charge until such a time as the system is upgraded.

This whole issue has been bungled. The Government has now brought forward new legislation and is taking a new approach. It has settled on a charge, which is still considered too much by some people based on what is being delivered, and has said it has introduced certainty. It says people will know what they will pay until 2017 or whenever. The reality, however, is that the next election will be fought on whether the parties coming to government will introduce a pay per usage charge. I suspect many will opt to go down the flat fee route. This means the Government ends up with the ultimate white elephant - €500 million worth of water meters buried in the ground providing no meaningful or purposeful use. Fine Gael made significant political capital over decisions taken on e-voting machines. I believe the water meters will be this Government's e-voting machines to the power of ten. E-voting machines cost us €50 million, and this involves €500 million.

The money spent on this project was an appalling waste of the hard pressed resources of the State at a time we could ill afford to spend those moneys. It will be a shocking indictment of the Government. For me, for the Government to spend that kind of money and ultimately not use the product that cost so much best demonstrates how out of touch the Taoiseach and the Government are, and it also further undermines the capacity of the State to provide the appropriate funding to upgrade the system.

The Taoiseach uses the same defence quite regularly, particularly when he is not in a position to be challenged. His defence is the accusation that past governments, in particular the last one, invested nothing in our water or sewerage treatment systems. Some of the Government backbenchers rehash the same lines when they get a clear run with a journalist in a local paper or on a local radio station. It is worth looking at the facts. Between 2000 and 2009, successive governments invested over €5 billion in infrastructure. They upgraded and improved many water treatment systems, put significant funding into group water schemes which improved the delivery of clean drinking water to many communities and upgraded sewerage treatment systems. In the county I know best, the Ennis water treatment was upgraded at a cost of approximately €8 million. A plethora of small sewerage treatment facilities were put in place in areas like Quilty, Feakle and Scariff and the system in Tulla was upgraded.

All of this was done with little fanfare but, with the flick of a hand, the Taoiseach gives us this complete untruth that there was no investment in our water and sewage treatment systems over that period. I am not going to say that more could not have been spent, but if that level of investment had been maintained by this Government since it came to office, the people in Roscommon would have clean drinking water and the effluent that is being pumped into the sea and into fresh water in many places would not be a problem.

The Government did the classic thing. It stymied investment for a period, forcing the issue, and then said it was the previous Government that was so dreadful and invested nothing, so that it would have to create this massive utility. It is a shambles. The Government, collectively, should bow its head in shame. It should go back to the drawing board. There is a much fairer and simpler way of doing this.

See this speech in context