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

Deputy Durkan had a good run on this amendment.

Sinn Féin would welcome electoral competition from Fine Gael in the North. Perhaps the party would supplant the SDLP.

A couple of facts have been missed in the discussion on Northern Ireland Water. We heard about the structures in place in the North. Northern Ireland Water was established by the British Government under the direct rule system. A five party power-sharing Executive replaced direct rule in 2007. The party I represent is one of the parties at the Executive table and for a couple of short years, we held the regional development Ministry. Alex Attwood of the SDLP subsequently took over the Department from Sinn Féin. In the short period that Conor Murphy was Minister, he tried to address some of the problems in Northern Ireland Water. One of the major problems was the lack of investment in sewerage infrastructure. More than £1 billion was invested in urban areas of the North, primarily Belfast, to upgrade the sewer network as the problem had not been addressed under direct rule.

A second problem the Minister faced was that the envelopes containing bills for water services were ready to be sent when he took office in 2007. Sinn Féin prevented the water charges from being implemented. As one party in a five party Executive, we are committed to doing everything in our power to prevent the introduction of domestic water charges. We are also committed to preventing their introduction here for the same reasons. The current Minister with responsibility for water in the North is Alex Attwood of the SDLP.

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