Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

They could do that, and that is the fear. I say that genuinely to the Minister. Our Bill proposing a referendum to insert a clause in the Constitution would firmly place the ownership of the water resources and water services in the hands of the people. The Minister's approach just to use legislation is weak.

The reason water services throughout the world were in public hands has nothing to do with ideology; it is just hard facts. First, governments recognised that water was important. Second, when the system of public water supply to houses was established, private companies throughout the world were not interested but they are starting to become interested now because these services and infrastructure have been built up over many years.

With regard to the operation of Irish Water, recent reports on the continuing level of leaks and the number of lead pipes proves that rehabilitation of the system is not taking place. The Minister is correct that priority is not being given to the meters. They are being put in at a huge rate, but they are being put into a leaking system. If we accept the Minister's statement that 6% of the water produced is lost on the domestic side of the meter, that means 3% is leaking from the other side of the meter. However, 50% is leaking out of the total system, with 47% leaking out of the public infrastructure, as the Minister has clarified.

There is another problem concerning insurance. I raised a case in Portlaoise with the Minister in this House. A contractor fitted meters in a housing estate. One inhabitant, a widow, was away at the time. She came back after a few days to find that the meter had been fitted and turned back on. I raised this with engineers. One needs to wind the old stopcocks several times to turn them on and off, but with the new meters one just does a half turn and the water goes on full force. The contractor turned the water back on, blew the middle out of the filter in the water softener in the utility room and destroyed the utilities in the room and the entire house. I tried to get a resolution for that widow but failed because it has bounced back and forth between the contractor and Irish Water and we have hit a brick wall. There is no protection. The actions of contractors are causing problems for householders. I visited that woman's house twice. A councillor brought it to my attention. I am very disappointed to say that this unfortunate woman received no resolution and has been left to carry the can for thousands of euro worth of damage.

In respect of the proposal for a dedicated ombudsman, our party's proposal about maintaining water services in public hands and having a proper public body that would be accountable to the Oireachtas would negate the need for an ombudsman. The Minister of State has highlighted the CER but the Government brushed it to one side. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government drove a bulldozer over it last October or November. The CER might as well not exist. To quote Mao Zedong, the CER is a paper tiger. Anybody who looked at the Government's actions last autumn would have seen that it basically steamrollered over the CER, so it is an ineffectual paper tiger that is useless at this stage. The people working in it might be well intentioned but they have been rendered obsolete. If water services were constitutionally protected, Irish Water was abolished and there was a proper public body that was accountable to the Oireachtas, the Committee of Public Accounts and the Minister, it would solve that problem.

We will support the passage of the Bill to the next Stage. We are doing so on the basis that there are aspects of it that could be addressed in other ways, some of which I have outlined. It does at least address major issues. We need to look again at water services. The Deputy has done us a service in bringing it up at this point and introducing the Bill. I know the Minister of State only got halfway through his script. It was one of those long scripts that Chinese leaders would be handed.

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