Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy had the wrong man. I thought he would have been on top of this and what is happening in Northern Ireland, but obviously he is not.

I am galled by the hypocrisy of Sinn Féin in respect of water services. A total of 35,000 water meters have been installed in the Six Counties, which represents a significant investment, yet Sinn Féin Members criticise the Government in this House for undertaking a metering programme to conserve water and to find leaks. Reference was made by a number of speakers to the cost of water and how the State compares to other jurisdictions. According to the UK's energy regulator, the average notional cost of providing water and sewerage services to each domestic household in Northern Ireland was £412 in 2013-14. Although the Northern Ireland Executive has delayed the introduction of water charges, its 2011 to 2015 budget states:

[I]n Northern Ireland [water] services are currently primarily funded from public expenditure. This creates pressure in other areas ... for example, [funds for] health and education, need to be diverted to cover the associated water services costs.

There is the proof in the pudding that we have a clear choice. We either take the funding out of vital health and education services, as is being done in Northern Ireland, or we come up with a vehicle that can attract and leverage funding off-balance-sheet, as the ESB has done for many years to develop its network.

We can do the same again with water networks. It has been made clear by the Minister and the Government that we are not privatising it and I welcome this amendment.

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