Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is a lot of politics in the Chamber this evening, as well as a lot of emotion, as one would expect in a debate on water charges. It is clearly going to be a key issue in the next election. However, I would like to revisit some of the facts because the numbers tell us pretty much everything we need to know about Irish Water.

The money raised from water charges will at most cover the cost of raising that money. According to my calculations, it will not even cover those costs. The net amount that will be raised from Irish households is approximately €90 million, and the cost of getting that amount of money will be more than €90 million. Irish households are being charged to cover the cost of charging them. Not one cent paid by any household in Ireland will pay for one drop of water, one replacement for a lead pipe or one brick in a new reservoir. The money the Government is seeking to take from us will cover the cost of getting that money. All the talk about people needing to understand that water is not free and that we have to upgrade the system is well and good but not a euro of the money raised will be invested in the system.

Even if it cost nothing to charge people for water because all the water meters were installed by volunteers with donations of concrete and shovels, all the people in the call centres worked for nothing in buildings constructed by philanthropists and An Post agreed to send the letters for free, it still would not be necessary to charge anybody for water. We know from the Irish Water capital expenditure programme that the only investment is an extra €200 million being invested in the system. These are Irish Water and Government numbers. This entire exercise is about investing an extra €200 million per year in water. Prior to this nonsense, Irish water cost approximately €1.2 billion to deliver. When Scotland brought its dispersed systems together, it managed to reduce operating costs by 40%. Let us be conservative and say we are only capable of achieving half of what Scotland saved. Even if we only reduced the cost base by 20% after bringing the dispersed utilities together and running it properly with new technology, we could pay for the entire additional investment in water with €40 million left over.

Not a single penny raised from an Irish household will be used to upgrade the infrastructure. Even if that money could be raised for free, it would not be necessary to raise it because all we have to do is reduce the operating costs by €200 million and invest that money in the system. That would solve the problem. There would be no water meters, protests or people coming into my office to ask me how they will manage to pay for water. There would be no threats about turning people's water down to a trickle or taking money out of people's wages or social welfare payments. None of that would be necessary had this project been managed properly.

Deputy Rabbitte suggested that the lack of minutes in numerous meetings between the then Minister, Phil Hogan, and Bord Gáis are not relevant. Of course they are relevant. This entire exercise has been pursued in secrecy. The Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform still cannot get evidence for the implications of off-balance sheet borrowing.

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