Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 29:

In page 8, line 32, after “Water” to insert the following:

“including householders, commercial water users and representatives of the trade unions with members in Irish Water”.

Section 7 deals with the establishment of the public water forum, the purpose of which is supposed to be to ensure that people will be represented in some fashion and that they will have a say with regard to the way in which water services are delivered. The latter is, of course, very important. To date, the board of Uisce Éireann has not facilitated much of either. There has been an absence of representatives from the trade unions and householders from the process. Members of the public are very frustrated by the fact that they have not had an input. Section 7 states that the forum shall consist of at least 12 and not more than 60 members. Obviously, there is a massive gap in this regard and it will be necessary to decide whether to opt for a membership or 12 or one of 59 or 60.

Sinn Féin is of the view that householders have been left out of the process completely. The word "consumer" has been used in respect of the people who will use the services of Irish Water. That word should be banned. The words "householders" and "citizens" should be included in the Bill instead in order that people will be recognised as human beings rather than machines. At this point, commercial water users are not sure what charges they will be obliged to pay. They are facing a very uncertain future. Currently, they pay charges that are set by the local authorities. The Minister has indicated that this will remain the case for the time being. Commercial users - our household would be classed as such because of the existence of a small business there - are facing a very uncertain future in respect of this matter. Such users will not be represented on the forum.

The position is similar for trade unions. There has been a great deal of discussion regarding the employees of Irish Water. The focus has been on those employees who are well paid and on the bonuses on offer, and rightly so. However, there are many employees of Irish Water who are not that well paid and who are on either low enough or middle incomes. There are people who are working under the service level agreements, SLAs, to provide services on behalf of the local authorities. These individuals were responsible for providing the service before the concept of creating Uisce Éireann was even mooted.

There is a massive vacuum in terms of the fact that there will be no representation for key stakeholders, namely, householders and citizens, commercial water users and trade unions. I request, therefore, that the Minister and the Government accept the amendment before the House. There has been a great deal of recent discussion among those opposite about the fact that they are listening to people. They now have an opportunity to ensure that representatives from the key sectors will have a say.

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