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

I actually said I was thinking more of Charlie Chaplin. To be honest, there is a good bit of Groucho and the Three Stooges in there too. It would be funny if it were not so serious.

Last week we spoke about the hidden costs of Irish Water. Here is another cost. Judging from the anecdotal evidence we have already heard from Deputies, we will have a hell of a lot of disputes with Irish Water. Where is the Commission for Energy Regulation going to get the staff and resources to deal with these complaints? It will be putting in for more money too. This will be another cost to add to the €130 million - or is it €160 million or €210 million? - for the conservation grant, as well as the hidden costs of administering these grants. It all piles up, leading one to believe the whole idea is becoming ridiculous. Due to all these consequences of setting up this quango, it will not make a cent but will rob people of more money.

Following on from what Deputy Coppinger said, it is obvious that this will produce more problems and complaints because there are far more demarcation lines. There is the demarcation of what the customer’s responsibility is and what it is not. If it is not a customer’s responsibility, is it Irish Water’s, the local authority’s or the contractor’s? We have all these stools and everyone batting everything back to everyone else.

A subject we have not brought up yet is that of rats. I am not talking about the Government or a certain builder who is in dispute with bricklayers.

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