Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister claimed it will lead to lower costs in the future. For whom? Essentially, the whole idea of establishing Irish Water was to ensure corresponding funding could be raised off balance sheet. There will be difficulties if it does not pass the EUROSTAT market corporation test.

Essentially, much of what has been estimated as the income for Irish Water with the new regime is going to leave nothing available to invest in remediating the system. All it is going to do is add to household costs. The €100 conservation grant, which has nothing to do with conservation, is really an exercise in creative accounting to find political acceptance, so that increased charges can be introduced in the future. There is no requirement to provide any evidence that water is being conserved or that anything is being done to achieve that. That is what people see. The economics of this are going to sink Irish Water - I cannot see how they can do anything else. It is extraordinary that a whole income stream in the form of development contributions for water and waste water systems has been dispensed with for the whole of 2014. That was a viable income stream and it has been dispensed with. I do not understand the rationale for where this investment is going to come from.

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