Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I stated on previous occasions, this Administration is doing something for people who have provided their own water for generations in the absence of any help from either central or local government. They will receive a small conservation grant and this will go towards paying for the cost of maintaining group water schemes or private wells. In the rush to get rid of Irish Water, the Opposition is also trying to remove the only assistance that remains for many people in rural communities. I refer to the water conservation grant, which will be used by those to whom I refer to replace lamps, service their pumps or as part of their contribution to their group water scheme charges. Of course, they have paid those charges for generations. It is at this point that those in opposition seem to fall asunder in respect of this matter. They come at this matter from an urban perspective and they fail to recognise that people who live in rural areas, including those in my constituency, have paid for their own water for decades. These individuals know the value of water in the context of how it is used for domestic and industrial purposes. They pay for water because if they did not do so, they would not have access to any supply. That is the reality in which those to whom I refer operate.

Most people, including those in Sinn Féin, know that water must be paid for and that is why, as Deputy Twomey correctly pointed out, 35,000 water meters were installed, at a cost of £13 million, north of the Border at the behest of the Northern Ireland Executive. Did anyone from Sinn Féin raise a clamour in this House to the effect that the latter was a waste of money? The answer is "No". Up until the Dublin West by-election, Sinn Féin was actually in favour of the consumer paying for water. However, those in Sinn Féin were outflanked by the candidate who was eventually elected, Deputy Paul Murphy, and so they reversed engines and decided to jump onto the anti-Irish Water bandwagon quickly because they were of the view that there were votes in it for them.

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