Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

In some ways, it is difficult to know what to say about the sham that we are witnessing regarding Irish Water. If Irish Water manages to bed down, which I doubt, then this amendment would alleviate the damage that Irish Water will do to the provision of water services. The fact that it will do damage is already very evident in just about every Member's constituency, given the joke that is people trying to contact Irish Water when leaks or bursts occur. They get the run around from the call centre or whatever it is, the call centre contacts the council, which just handed over its assets to Irish Water, and then the council and Irish Water fight so as not to have responsibility. Some body will sit around and recommend measures to deal with this fiasco, but the underlying problem is the fiasco itself. The best constituted public forum in the world would not be able to make head nor tail of it. I told the Minister last night that this fiasco deserved a place in a Charlie Chaplin film. In fact, I wonder whether we could have an honorary seat on the forum for Charlie Chaplin in absentia.

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