Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach replied that an independent assessment has been carried out by the CER "into all these matters". I was not aware that the CER had performed an independent assessment since the Minister announced his new proposals on 19 November and I checked the CER website this afternoon but found nothing on the new proposals. Perhaps the Minister has done some work on this in the past two or three weeks but, if that is the case, he should refer us to it. There is nothing recent on the CER website, nothing relating to the proposals of 19 November, though there are references to various studies carried out by the commission on earlier proposals. We are debating the proposals of 19 November today because we say, on the basis of those proposals, these measures do not add up. Where is the independent oversight of this financing model and where are the studies to support it? I am not aware of any such oversight or studies, though I would like to think they exist. Perhaps the Minister could clarify this point.

People have said they do not believe this Minister and other Ministers intend to privatise Irish Water and I accept that the Minister has not set out with that intention. However, on the basis of these proposals and given the shakiness of the financial model that has been constructed, it seems highly likely that, at some point towards the end of next year or early in 2016, Irish Water will become insolvent. In that event there will be a crisis because Irish Water will have insufficient revenue and will fail the market corporation test. The Minister has been pressed on his plan B in the event that Irish Water should fail this test because if that were to happen all of the costs associated with the project would go back on the balance sheet - in other words, there would be a crisis. In such a crisis situation, the Government would be under great pressure to privatise Irish Water and this is my concern. I accept that the Minister may have no intention to privatise Irish Water at this stage but, given the shakiness of the proposed financial model and the absence of robust oversight, it is inevitable that the entity will fall apart, necessitating emergency legislation. All that is required to amend this section is the passing of amending legislation in this House and the Seanad, using the same large Government majority that has been used to ram through everything else over the past three and a half years.

It beggars belief that a full, independent assessment of the new proposals has not been carried out but a member of the public did much work on this over the weekend on the basis of figures provided last week. Many people have seen the calculations of this individual and he has done a fairly thorough analysis of the Irish Water figures. Taking everything into consideration and using the figures provided by both Ministers over the course of this debate, this individual has concluded that the total net revenue available for investment by Irish Water is €63.7 million, after costs and grants are taken into consideration. That figure is the maximum that will be available to Irish Water.

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