Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I must confess that I too am absolutely puzzled even by the intent behind section 7 of this legislation. I tried to figure out what is the purpose of this forum of people. I tried to work through a process of elimination and reckoned that if the purpose of the forum is to represent the views of the customers of the entity called Irish Water, the question is how will they do that. Will there be a requirement on the forum members to speak to their neighbours and their local communities?

Who will set the agenda for them? Will it be the local community? Who will advise them as to how the local community views the operations of Irish Water? I see nothing in this section to state that the representatives on this public forum must be elected by the people. That is a fundamental and fatal flaw. If members of the public forum are not elected public representatives, then the only people they will represent will be Irish Water and whoever nominated them to the forum.

The last thing Irish Water customers need is a body of 60 people whose job it is to tell the nation how great they are. Having read this section, the only thing that would make sense of it is that it is a public relations stunt for Irish Water. Forum members will not be in a position to know what the public feel about the service, but they will be indoctrinated by Irish Water. They will be brought into the boardroom, wined and dined, and told how well Irish Water is doing. They will then be told to get out there and sell that message to the wider public. That is what this public forum is really about.

We need something better than the equivalent of 60 little plastic nodding dogs on the dashboard of the gravy train that is Irish Water. The Government talks about empowering local communities and strengthening democracy, but how in the name of God could this be regarded in any way as doing so? Deputy Keating said the Government was being brave in establishing this forum, but I cannot figure out how it could be described as brave when it spawns a dysfunctional entity like Irish Water. The Government has made a total mess of introducing the legislation to establish the company. Ministers listen to no one but their own echoes, and guillotine democratic debate to push through flawed legislation, yet they are now to be considered brave because they will select 60 people to represent the views of this wonderful entity. How in the name of God could that be described as brave?

The public forum that should have been heeded was the one outside the gates of Leinster House on Wednesday. If the Government had listened to the tens of thousands of people then, this bad legislation would not be going through. I hope that those people, and more, will be out again on Saturday, 31 January 2015. If I were a gambling man, I would go down to Paddy Power's and put a sizeable wager on the fact that no more than a few of those on the protest marches will be on this nonsensical public forum for Irish Water. The only people who will be on that forum are those who share the Minister's view that Irish Water is the best thing ever invented. There will be no dissenters allowed.

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