John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We have been told the key principles of the Bill are certainty, simplicity and affordability. There is no doubt in my mind and in the minds of many people that this is spin the Government has put on the latest attempt to quell public anger about the Irish Water fiasco. The Government's announcement has failed to address the key complaint of thousands of water protestors about whether every consumer will have clear and clean water. This will not be the case for a long time.

An example of what I am talking about is the area of Ferrybank, which borders my constituency. I have visited many homes there where people have been forced to replace kettles and washing machines because of lime in the water. On that issue, people all over the country have not been convinced and will not be convinced that they will be guaranteed a supply of clean water by paying a charge. I do not think that will be the case.

Before attempting to appease voters with the proposed cuts, the Government should have instructed councils everywhere to take on the responsibility of improving the old water networks and providing high-quality interconnected water reservoirs with foolproof treatment. A few weeks ago, I spoke to a hydrologist who has worked for the UN in Somalia and Sudan and now works for a private company in Scotland. He was completely shocked and says we are a laughing stock. He found it incomprehensible that we would make available €539 million to install a metering system on pipes that will eventually have to be replaced. I live in an old part of Waterford city and, if meters are installed, they will be connected to an old lead pipe system. The whole area has old lead pipes that will not be replaced. That would not happen in a Third World country, where the hydrologist says the old clay pipes would be immediately replaced with plastic fittings. In a modernised country in 2014, we will make hundreds of millions of euro available to connect meters to old pipes that will eventually have to be replaced if they are not repaired in the immediate future. It does not make any economic sense.

The hydrologist told me that when new water systems are being put in across Europe, the first thing that is checked is whether the piping is competent and the system that will bring water directly to people's doors is in good order. One of the reasons we have leakage of 48% is the existence of old and lead pipes. It is incredible to think that we allocated all this money instead of holding on for a year or two and making money available to councils to replace old systems. The hydrologist says we are a laughing stock and that this would not happen anywhere else. I have spoken to plumbers and engineers who say that attempting to connect meters to old lead piping can do moderate damage to the piping. People will be faced with huge bills to repair pipes in the foreseeable future. Why did we not do what must be done in this country to bring in proper supplies into every house? This involves replacing pipes that are dangerous.

The whole thing is laughable. In Cheekpoint in Waterford, a notice went out from Waterford City Council saying it accepted that the water coming in through lead pipes was not very suitable. The council proposed that people get up in the morning and fill the sink two or three times, leave the water running let it run out through the system. Could we imagine putting meters in for those families? Where is the conservation? Who the hell thought of this? The hydrologist I spoke to asked me whether we had brought in specialists or hydrologists - people who know about water - to look at the system and decide the best way of dealing with the process. The Government probably did not do that. Instead, it brought in incompetence in Irish Water to deal with the system - total incompetence, which has been proven. It appears that all those in Irish Water want to do is see how much money - how many hundreds of millions of euro - they can grab, how many bonuses can they get out of it - bonuses for their cars, top-ups on their transport - and how they can use all this money for their own benefit without using it for the benefit of the people.

This is one of the reasons 50% of people will not pay the water charges. Even those who pay will do so only under protest and the Government will pay a heavy price when those people remind the Government of their objection to the charges at the next election. The Government has made a mess of this issue and is forcing people to pay and all of this leads me to believe there is an inevitability about Irish Water.

Irish Water will be privatised at some point as a future Government will have no choice in a few years but to do so. The company will lose money hand over fist and someone will seek a better way for it to be run. When poorly performing semi-State companies cannot be wound down they tend to be privatised and this is what happened to water services in England and Scotland. In a period of six to eight years the cost of water in England and Scotland rose by a staggering 64%. People do not believe that Irish Water will not be privatised as the company must be subsidised for the next two years and possibly the next three years. Where will this money come from? It is inevitable that people will give up on Irish Water and it will be privatised. To make a profit or even break even very high prices will be imposed on households and the Government does not understand that many people know this will happen.

I addressed a march in Waterford of around 7,000 people and one in Portlaw of around 800 people. Contrary to the myths that have been spread that the left has organised all the militants in Ireland to come out and march, the vast majority of attendees were ordinary, everyday people. There were families, Labour Party supporters, Fine Gael supporters and Fianna Fáil supporters and they all said they have had enough. I spoke to a businessman who was at a march with his daughters. He employs 24 people and he said he can easily afford to pay the charges but he has had enough of broken promises, the weakened economy, cronyism and the fact that nothing has changed in five years. This is why he marched. It is a damning indictment of the Government that people who ordinarily would not protest took to the streets. The Government will find that this is the case when people march again on 10 December.

I was strolling on Grafton Street yesterday and met two people from Waterford. They said "Hello John, see you next Wednesday". I do not know who they were and I think the Government will be surprised by the number of people who come to Dublin to march. People will march against Irish Water and the incompetent manner in which it was set up but they will march for other reasons too. The Government has shown audacity to back a company that, before anything else, ensured it had a bonus structure. Forgive the pun but none of this has washed away - people know it was only because 150,000 of them took to the streets that changes were considered. If nobody had marched the changes would not have been made. The point is, many people have had enough. We are all human and we all make mistakes in our personal lives, on committees and generally but sometimes people must own up and admit they made a mess. The Government should do this and start from the beginning because many people would be forgiving. If this had been done right from the beginning, if the truth had been told and if all this was not part of the rip-off culture we have experienced in Ireland for the past 20 years people probably would have paid water charges. People would have been willing to pay a few bob for clear drinking water, though I think they should not pay the charges as they have already done so through taxation. The Government has driven away many people who might have paid had this been done properly and they will not come back.

The surveys suggest 35% of people will not pay the charges and 40% will but we should forget about percentages. People in Ireland are generally compliant; they do not like to break the law and the want to do what they think is right. People consider many factors, including the economy, the country, cities, small towns and villages, when making these decisions and they want to do what is best for the country. Nonetheless, many of the people who will pay the charges are very angry at how Irish Water was set up and foisted upon them. They were told half-truths initially and Irish Water showed great arrogance by remaining uncontactable. TDs were given a direct line to Irish Water only two weeks ago and prior to that we phoned up like everyone else and waited 30 to 40 minutes to talk to someone. Only Eircom made profits from this situation as millions of phone calls were made seeking information.

All of this has done irreparable damage to the Irish body politic and that is regrettable because, as I have often said, there are good people in every political party who set out to do what is best for their constituencies and, as legislators, their country. This is why I have not criticised or aimed derogatory remarks at members of the Labour Party, Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael but people know they have been let down badly. The Government should take actions now to benefit democracy and belief in politics, though I do not believe it will. If this kind of humility was shown people might say, "alright, even politicians can make mistakes". The Government is asking people to back the failed entity that is Irish Water. If people cannot trust a company that they must fund then it is a failed entity. One must trust the person for whom one works, the company to which one pays fees and the politician for whom one wishes to vote. These are the reasons many people have decided not to pay - they are not all lefties and militants who do not want to pay for anything. It will be clear next Wednesday that 99.9% of marchers are ordinary men and women with families. They feel that they are not responsible for damage to the Irish economy in the past ten to 15 years but they are being asked to carry the burden. The Irish people are being asked to back a company that does not care about them - it has no compassion and is more interested in handing out bonuses over a period of years. Irish Water has developed from an unsettling entity to an obnoxious entity.

The Minister should reconsider this legislation and abolish Irish Water as it has let down the Government - I do not believe that company was set up to carry on as it did. Irish Water does not have faith in people and people do not have faith in Irish Water. I do not think the Government understands how much people are suffering. I am sure Deputies in every party meet constituents in their advice centres who say "stop telling me this is just another €5 per week". The household charge was just another €5 per week, the universal social charge was just another €5 per week and people do not want to hear this again. They know they cannot afford it.

A friend of mine studied for four years at University College Cork and two years in Amsterdam and he now has a very good job. There are five adults in his house - two of his daughters are in third level education - and when he looks at his wage packet at the end of the month there is nothing left. He wonders how things came to this as he has worked for 36 years and has never claimed social welfare. He has never sought a penny from the State but he is struggling to keep one child in university and another in college in Waterford while paying a mortgage and a credit union loan. His six years in college came at a great cost to his family and he pays his taxes and the universal social charge. At the end of the month he has to wonder whether the family can afford to go for a meal. He asks himself "can I bring my wife out for a meal?".

This is exactly what he said to me: "How much petrol can I put in the car this week - €50 or €20 worth?" That is what we have done to people. We have destroyed their quality of life. The Government cannot come along and start saying to people that it is only €5, €3 or €2. That is not accepted any more. Irish Water is the straw that broke the camel's back. The people who marched said it was about more than just water; it was about the way they have been treated for the past ten years. I am not blaming the Government for everything. I have always stated here that the Government inherited a poor hand of cards, what happened was fairly bad, etc., but the point is that Fine Gael and the Labour Party have been in government four years, and they made a lot of promises they could not keep, would not keep or were not in a position to keep. That has resonated with and upset so many people and this is why they are marching. It is not about Irish Water. The Government must remember that this is about austerity, austerity, austerity.

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