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

It is most likely that Fine Gael wants it, but the Government wants a get-out clause and there is a good reason.

I come at the issue from a slightly different point of view from many of the other contributors in that I do not believe a majority in the Government parties want to prevent the privatisation of Irish Water; worse than that, I believe the Government knows that, with the introduction of water charges, privatisation is absolutely inevitable. The Minister knows that is true and privately, if we were not discussing this issue openly in public, he would admit it. He would say, "Of course, it is going to be privatised," just like everything else was privatised once charges were introduced. Once on the slope towards user charges, privatisation inevitably follows. The evidence I will provide in favour of this argument is what is happening in the here and now. I pointed to this in the experiences of the people from Detroit.

The Government is privatising Irish Water now, which is why it does not want to hold a referendum on the issue. The introduction of charges is the beginning of the privatisation process. Off-balance sheet financing is, de facto, privatisation. It is not nominal but effective privatisation, which is precisely what our friends from Detroit explained to us. Detroit Water is nominally in the ownership of the city of Detroit, but, in reality, as they explained in detail, off-balance sheet financing means that it effectively has been privatised because the people from whom it borrows money to undertake the infrastructural work - the private financiers - actually call the shots. They decide the level of charges, the priorities of Detroit Water in terms of where investment is made, the bonuses for those who really make the decisions, exert pressure to have cut-offs and so on. That is what happens. Once the private financiers come in, they will decide.

Is this scaremongering? I say we know about this from our national economic experience in the past five years. The bondholders call the shots and have been calling them in the economy for the past six years, but the Minister is trying to tell us that it will be totally different in the case of Irish Water. He must think we are idiots. That is what has been happening; the bondholders have been dictating everything and the more the Government becomes dependent on them to finance whatever Irish Water does, the more they will control the situation. When this is added to the incredible holes in the finances of Irish Water which we discussed at length last week and which will be the subject of subsequent amendments, it completely proves the point. If Irish Water will only generate what could be as little as €16 million net a year for the Exchequer or perhaps up to €60 million - let us say it is even €60 million - that means that it will take 15 years to pay back the initial set-up costs. Where will Irish Water get the money to undertake all of the infrastructural work?

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