Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

However, Sinn Féin never has had any discussions about getting rid of Northern Ireland Water, and it now delivers the service it was created for. The structures of Irish Water and Northern Ireland Water are highly similar. There is nothing in the management statement or the financial memorandum of Northern Ireland Water that makes any reference to the necessity for board members to be drawn from trade unions or from among workers. I have looked through the biographies of the board members of Northern Ireland Water, none of which makes a reference to representing a specific group of, for example, people who avail of the services of, or who work for, Northern Ireland Water. They are appointed to that board because of their expertise, and I note that many of them come from accountancy companies or other water boards across the United Kingdom. There has been a lot of argument that really is just about creating noise in this Chamber, and I do not consider it to be highly effective in respect of the debate.

The Minister of State should, when responding, focus on how Northern Ireland Water was established and how it has operated for the past seven years. We should seek to ensure that in establishing Irish Water we do not make the same mistakes made during the establishment of Northern Ireland Water. Despite that there is a great deal of white noise about statistics and who is being paid what and so on, we are, thus far, on the right track. Overall, this is fairly clear-cut and straightforward.

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