Joe O'Reilly (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With amendment No. 3, the Minister has responded adequately to the question of privatisation. Privatisation cannot happen without a decision of the two Houses of the Oireachtas followed by a plebiscite of the people. That is watertight beyond measure. The Opposition Deputies did not vote against this earlier today. There was no official vote against this amendment from any part of the Opposition when it was put to the House. The constitutional prohibition proposed by Deputy Donnelly and others would prove difficult due to group schemes and private wells.

It would end up as a legal quagmire due to rights of ownership and so forth. It is not easy constitutional law, it would not work in practice and it would be open to many legal challenges. That is the difficulty with it. The Minister's response in the amendment is adequate. It deals with the issue and allays public fear. In fact, just as he has allayed public concern on this issue, he has also allayed public concern about cost. It will cost a little over €1 per week for an individual and a little over €3 per week for a multi-person family or home to have a water supply.

I am delighted with the conservation grants. I challenge the Opposition to state its position on them. Many of its Members are opposed to them, but the grants give recognition to people who have their own wells and to the group schemes. How would the Opposition proceed? Is it happy to keep the status quoof the boil water notices, the miles of lead and old piping and the sewage going into waterways, with the health and safety issues that go with it?

We are not charging for water. Water is a free resource that falls from the sky in Ireland. The cost arises in the delivery and treatment of water. It is a misnomer to say we are talking about water charges. There is no question of water charges; it is a question of charges for treatment to get pure, clean water and the delivery of that water. The Opposition must state whether it wants the status quoor whether it supports change to support tourism, inward investment and the health of our nation. If it supports that change, how does it propose to fund it? Will it be through direct taxation and increasing the tax on the narrow base of people who pay much of the tax in this country, when this offers a broadening of the tax base? Would the Opposition diminish services to pay for it? It is impossible that money will fall from the sky by some magic process to do it, so the question the Opposition must address is whether it would cut services-----

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