Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on this new Bill. This whole debate has been handled in the most appalling way. There has been gross incompetence, mismanagement, confusion and a complete lack of leadership on the whole affair. On top of this, the people of this country are being hammered again with another stealth tax. Let us have no doubt that this water tax is the final straw for the citizens of this State. That is why they are extremely angry at the moment. Let there also be no mistake that I will be voting against this legislation. Like the home tax, it is another attack on the lives of the people of this country, and it has to be rejected.

This Government has wasted a lot of money instead of repairing the broken and leaking pipes, or dealing with the issue of lead pipes in areas such as Marino and Raheny in my own constituency. It could have resolved the issues instead of taxing people who have hardly any money left in their pockets. This is part of the broader debate - the lack of money in people's pockets after years of austerity. That is what should have happened, and the vast majority of a reasonable people know that. People have the full right to water and we already feel very strongly that we have paid for this in our general taxes. We must look very seriously at the whole debate about using general taxation to provide proper water services. We have run away from this aspect of the debate. We saw in the recent budget that people on top salaries will get tax cuts in the future while here we are, fighting over sums like €160 for families who are already feeling the pressure.

It is important to understand that there is major public anxiety. The original legislation was rammed through the House in four hours. That was not enough time and we must consider all of the problems it has caused for the people of this country, but also for the Government. This anxiety has been exaggerated and exacerbated, and people are very fed up.

I mentioned the issue of water leaks. There is now a situation where 40% of the pipes in this country are leaking. We have a disastrous infrastructure. In some areas, I believe that figure of 40% is a very conservative one and I have heard of some parts of Dublin city where there is up to 52% or 53% leakage. This is not acceptable. The issue of infrastructure has to be dealt with head-on. Another issue which is still on the table is that of the concerns about privatisation. Households feel they could be vulnerable in the future to large corporations with for-profit motives.

Another issue that has been ignored in nearly all contributions is related to the issue of general taxation and the public health implications. It is important to look at this. People will consume what they can afford rather than what they need. We must very careful in this regard. When the meters come into action, people will skimp on general hygiene because of property. There is likely to be an increase in diseases and illness.

This has been the situation since the 19th century, when clean water was always an essential issue in dealing with disease issues and health problems. Clean water, sanitation and public health have always been part of any caring society. Since the 19th century, the provision of clean water and sanitation has been regarded as an essential aspect of the prevention of diseases. This remains the starting point for many public health programmes designed for low-income countries today, in particular for people on low incomes and those living in poverty. The public health aspect has to be looked at very seriously.

Irish policymakers seem to be largely unaware of the public health implications of proposing a kind of poll tax or water tax on the supply of clean water. This has to be looked at from all points of view. In the past 25 years, population density has been increasing and more people are living in urban areas of more than 1 million people. These conditions put more people at risk of water borne diseases, especially in light of persistent reports of the presence of E. coli in a significant number of local authority areas and private water supplies, and in particular given the outbreak in Galway in 2007. Since 2011, the residents of Letterkenny have been exposed to increasing health risks because Donegal County Council has failed to implement a recommended programme to improve the quality of drinking water by eliminating all the issues which cause infections. This is very important and must be examined.

The current situation in the Republic is characterised by themes common to mid-19th century Britain, where Edwin Chadwick's sanitary reform movement campaigned to identify relative poverty as a field of public knowledge and as a means of active intervention to reduce the dangers of the relationship between contaminated water and disease. Public health conditions in early 19th century Britain were extreme, typified by periodic outbreaks of cholera and typhoid. However, relative circumstances concerning the universal lack of clean water exist in 21st century Ireland. Increasing urbanisation in Ireland, in combination with the substandard supply and quality of safe drinking water in some areas, has threatened public health. This is an issue we must look at seriously.

In Britain, political pressure was exerted on central government by the powerful interests of the laissez-fairecapitalists and local elites. Chadwick's proposed reforms faced powerful opposition from those whose economic and political interests were threatened by the public measures likely to reduce their individual incomes through general taxation and, therefore, compromise their status in regard to the general population. Chadwick's views led him into further conflict with those who held the traditional upper middle class opinion that the circumstances of the poor were due to inherent character defects that should be actively curbed and punished. The above comment by other people appears to echo that sentiment. It was argued that improvements in water supply should be granted the authoritative power of a national project funded from general taxation. Chadwick and his colleagues took their cue from reformers and civil engineers on the continent, notably in France and Germany, and used carefully accumulated health-related statistics to confirm their views and bypass opposing factional interests. I believe there is a lot to be learned from history.

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