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

I move amendment No. 30:

In page 9, to delete line 35.

On studying the Bill, I see no mechanism for resolving disputes with Irish Water. In my constituency, a contractor working on behalf of Irish Water came to an estate to fit meters. A retired nurse living there was away for a week with her family when the meters were fitted. The valve on the meters is not like the old valve, which one had to turn several times to turn the water off or on. The new valve needs only a small twist, which results in a sudden gush. The sudden gush blew the middle out of the person's water softener and some of the other appliances in her house, and flooded her whole house as a result. There were no leaks in her house before the Irish Water contractors fitted the meter and did what they did. She raised the issue with me and I raised it with the contractor and Irish Water, which bounced it back and forth between them. First, Irish Water said it had not happened; then it said it had happened and the contractor was responsible. The contractor disputed this, despite the fact that the householder had brought in a suitably qualified person who verified that the excessive water pressure when the contractor turned the water back on was the cause of the problem. The water took the resin and other fillings out of the water softener in the person's utility room and flooded her whole house. I see no mechanism for sorting out such issues.

We are dealing with a corporate body with no direct line of accountability. Irish Water can listen to us if it wants to. A previous speaker raised the fact that while people on consultative bodies may discuss matters, final decisions are made in the boardroom, not in council chambers or here in the Dáil. We are all accountable and must take these matters seriously because, whichever side of the House we sit on, we must be interviewed by several thousand people at least every five years. Irish Water is not directly accountable to the Comptroller and Auditor General or the Minister. Like Bord na Móna or any semi-state company, it must publish an annual report, nothing more, and remains at arm's length.

Councillors and Deputies certainly are completely sidelined under reformed local authorities for which the Labour Party and Fine Gael argued in this Chamber. Sinn Féin supports local authority reform and some of what the Government has done is good. I do not agree with all of it but everyone seeks stronger reformed local authorities. There is no better mechanism for holding to account public services than local authority members, be they Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour, Sinn Féin, Independent or anything else because those people are directly accountable and are close to those they represent. That is the straight line of accountability. I do not have faith in this customer dispute resolution. It is a sop that creates the illusion that some kind of mechanism will be in place but in my experience thus far with Irish Water, it is completely unaccountable. It does not resolve problems, there is no straight line of accountability, there is no mechanism for holding the company accountable and therefore, I will oppose the section.

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