Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is deceiving the public in what he said because that is not in the legislation. The legislation states that a government, if it is to dispose of and privatise Irish Water at some future date, needs the majority of one in Dáil Éireann, the majority of one in Seanad Éireann and then it may or may not put a plebiscite to the people. I put down a very simple amendment which states that it "shall" put that plebiscite to the people and the Ceann Comhairle has ruled it out of order based on the Standing Orders of this House.

As an alternative I have put forward amendment No. 5 which deals with the principle we are talking about here, ensuring that it is clear that the State-controlled assets, which are being handed over to Irish Water, cannot be privatised at any future date if the boot-boys from the EU come in here to tell us we are in serious financial difficulty and we have to flog off the assets of Irish Water to the highest possible bidder as quickly as possible. My amendment would force a situation such that it would take not only a majority of the Dáil and Seanad but of each of the 95 municipal districts across the country to approve. Without writing it into the Constitution that is the best way to protect the assets of Irish Water and ensure they remain in public ownership.

The Minister and his Labour Party colleagues say they are putting the protections in place to ensure the assets cannot be privatised. There is nothing new or additional in this Bill that would guarantee that. The former Minister of State, Deputy O’Dowd, said in his contribution here on Tuesday night that previously there had been an agreement to make it explicit in the legislation that the assets could not be privatised. That has evaporated. Interestingly, Deputy O’Dowd said there is a hidden agenda to privatise these assets in the long term.

I cannot understand why the Minister has not explicitly inserted in the legislation that it must go before the people. He has not even been prepared to defend that. In respect of my amendment he has said that a future government will not look to dispose of the assets of Irish Water and the water supply in this country and that my amendment is too cumbersome. Cumbersome to whom? Cumbersome to a future government that wants to privatise the assets of Irish Water.

If the Minister is sincere in what he says, my amendment deals with the concerns raised by his party and the thousands of people who were outside this building yesterday and many thousands more, who are very concerned about the potential privatisation of water. It proposes putting a very simple procedure in place that each of their local councillors across the country would have a direct say before any decision could be made. In such a system and mechanism it would not get the agreement of all 95 municipal districts across the country. That would put a critical safety valve in place to ensure we do not see again a situation such as arose when the EU masters put a gun to the late Brian Lenihan’s head. They will not be able to put a gun to the heads of the 95 municipal districts across the country. That will ensure that not only Irish citizens have a say but every individual in this State, over the age of 18, who has been legally resident in the country for at least 12 months, has a say through his or her local councillor in what should happen to the assets of Irish Water.

The Minister will again argue that he will do what he says but he did not do what he said on 19 November. The Government did not do what the then Minister of State, Deputy O’Dowd, said here 12 months ago next week, that people in County Roscommon or anywhere else who have a boil water notice in place would not pay for that water. They will face bills on 1 April next of €130 for a family in an urban area. The Minister promised us on 19 November that the boil water notice in County Roscommon would be lifted imminently. That is not happening. There is even confusion between the local authority and Irish Water as to when the boil water notices will be lifted.

The Government is being disingenuous in the commitments it is making in the House and in what is happening in practical terms on the ground. For the Minister to come in here and say he is reassuring us in this House and the public that no future government would privatise the assets of Irish Water is not good enough. This section in the legislation which deals with a plebiscite is nothing but a fig-leaf because it is deceitful to tell the public that there is such a plebiscite in place when it is written in black and white in this legislation that this is not the case.

11 o’clock

If the Minister is serious and genuine, I urge him to accept my amendment, which provides for a belt-and-braces mechanism that would ensure Irish water cannot be privatised at some future date. This is the only mechanism that would make such provision without having to put it explicitly into the Constitution. It seems the Minister's colleagues in Fine Gael are vehemently opposed to taking the constitutional approach, although I believe many of his colleagues in the Labour Party are anxious to see it happen.

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