Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on Deputy Mattie McGrath's Bill. It is important that we continue to debate this issue because it is being raised on doorsteps across this country. From its very inception, Irish Water was regarded as a toxic entity by the citizens of this State. Such was the opposition that huge numbers people took to the streets to protest it. These thousands and thousands of people finally forced the Government to backtrack on its plans for Irish Water. Fianna Fáil reached agreement with the troika to privatise water services and commodity water, and the current Government continued that policy. It is amazing that the Labour Party continues to support Irish Water. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform was opposed to water service charges while he was in Opposition, as were many of his party colleagues. When Deputy Eric Byrne stood in the 2000 general election he issued a leaflet which stated:

A number of issues will emerge in the forthcoming general election: massive job redundancies, poor state of our health and education systems, traffic congestion, and lack of proper childcare.

Service charges will also be an issue. Be warned: the same politicians who brought you rubbish charges are planning to introduce new water and other service charges in the future.

You should ask all canvassers: - Do you support services charges?

- Do you support jailing people who do not pay service charges?

The same Deputy voted for Irish Water, which has commodified a crucial human requirement. It is an absolute scandal and the Labour Party should be ashamed of itself.

We know what happens when utilities are commodified. Deputy Eric Byrne and I opposed bin charges because we knew that once waste collection was commodified it would become attractive to corporations around Europe and the world. Water is the new oil. From Dublin to Detroit and from Bray to Bolivia, people are demanding that their water remain in public ownership. Some people have made the outrageous claim that we never paid for water. We always paid for our water through VAT and motor tax. Local authorities received €1.2 billion every year to manage our water supply. Questions about how that money was used could have been addressed by bringing the water service departments in local authorities together as a national grouping. I raised the issue of water supplies and repairs of leaks on numerous occasions while I was on Dublin City Council. We were told there was no problem with making money available but that the tendering process was cumbersome and lengthy and once the tender was complete it took even more time before the workers were actually fixing the pipes. The Government should have addressed those issues instead of establishing the toxic entity that is Irish Water.

The Government claims that water meter installation is proceeding well. That is not the case in the many areas which have resisted water meters. In Donegal, the companies which were given the contract for installing meters subsequently pulled out because they feel they cannot complete this work. There was huge resistance in working-class areas of Dublin city because people see water meters as the next step towards privatisation. I worked with the community in my own area in Parnell Road, Crumlin, when residents objected to water meters. We were arrested in an over-the-top response to our protests. Peaceful protests should be respected by Irish Water, the Garda and the State. Arresting people is not the proper way to respond because it causes friction in the community and risks undermining the good work that community gardaí have done.

The progressive work that the Government claims is being done by Irish Water, such as dealing with boil water notices, could easily have been carried out by the local authorities if a coherent strategy had been developed on a national basis. The Minister of State, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, is aware of the quality of the work done by those who worked in the water departments of our local authority. They knew every part of our city. The Government claims it only recently realised that we have problems with lead pipes, but we knew for decades that any house older than 70 years could contain lead piping. Members on the Government benches had the opportunity to deal with that issue while they were in the local authority but they failed to do so, even though the problems were repeatedly brought to their attention by local authority engineers.

At the end of the day, I support the Bill over the issue of privatisation. I do not think the Government can stand over the legislation it introduced. Aer Lingus was a State-owned company until Fianna Fáil sold 75% of it a number of years ago and this Government is about to sell off the last 25% of it. It is not possible to know how that will impact on our strategic need for access to and from this country. The Government should be ashamed of doing that.

In all this, the TTIP is looming in the background. On Wednesday, the votes were stopped and did not continue. I am sure it will come back on the agenda again. We know what TTIP is - a secret deal that is now being debated in the European Parliament. It allows big multinational companies to hold governments to account if they introduce anything that would affect their profits. It is a very dangerous trade agreement. It also has a private court to determine whether these big multinationals are right regarding taking governments to court or holding them to account. It is very dangerous and it should be debated in the Dáil, as we have not had a chance to do so. It has been discussed at a committee but we should have a debate in the Chamber to hear the Government's stance and whether it will oppose it.

Tomorrow, there will be a meeting of the Right2 Water campaign to discuss policy for the next general election, including the possibility of standing candidates in every constituency it can. We will discuss policies on the right to health, the right to education, the right to transport, the right to a democratic accountable government, the right to water and other issues. Coming out of that I hope we will have a strong cohesive alternative to put to the people. Yesterday, on behalf of the five unions involved, Mr. Michael Taft issued a new fiscal framework for progressive government after the next election. This pointed out where €10 billion could be found to put back into the economy and reverse the cuts in social protection and the other areas that have affected working people most.

I support the Bill. The new legislation was only introduced because of people power and people on the street. A couple living on the north side of Dublin recently received a bill from Irish Water. It was for €64.40, the capped amount. However, it also mentioned that the metered amount would have been €476. That is the amount the couple would be expected to pay if metering was being used at the moment. That comes to €1,900 a year. People are absolutely gobsmacked at that and it is why people are protesting. They see the capping until 2018 as just trying to pull the wool over people's eyes and keep them moving back. However, people will be back out on the streets in the near future and we will be putting up candidates in the general election.

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