Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is a trait that has emerged from the Government over a period of time and the public are beginning to realise it - we certainly have. There have been three major issues in the lifetime of the Government which demonstrated procrastination on the part of the Government in withholding information. I and other spokespersons tabled many parliamentary questions at the time of the setting up of Irish Water. We were met by the downright refusal of the relevant Department to answer questions pertaining to the costs associated with its set-up. It took a slip of the tongue on the part of the CEO on a radio programme to eventually expose the massive waste of expenditure on consultants even though we had been assured that the relevant expertise to set up this entity was available within the resources of Bord Gáis Éireann in an effort to secure the contract ahead of Bord na Móna, its main competitor at that time.

The former Minister, Commissioner Phil Hogan, withheld information that was eventually exposed and led to what has ensued. In recent times, Deputy Catherine Murphy tabled 19 questions to the Minister for Finance over the purchase of Siteserv. That has led to considerable difficulties on the part of the Government, eventually leading it to put in place a commission of inquiry to investigate all aspects of that deal in order to assure the public, if it eventually does, that there was nothing untoward in that process. However, it could have been avoided. The public could have been made fully aware if the Minister had answered the relevant questions. It took 19 questions and he eventually complimented the Deputy on getting the information through freedom of information requests.

As recently as two days ago, the Minister who took Leaders' Questions on Wednesday would not answer questions on the amount of bills had been paid and what figures emanated from that process heretofore. That is just not on. Nothing has been learned. It is a trait that has evolved and has not only become very obvious to us in here who have seen it from day one, but the public have caught on. The public will hold the Government to account when they are asked for their verdict on its performance in government and in disseminating information.

Deputy Mattie McGrath referred to the establishment of the weekly clinic, which I attended this week. I did so because of the Minister's public statement on the lead pipes. I raised that issue in the House over two years ago when there was much fanfare over Irish Water having a first-fix policy and that no expense would be spared in order for people to rectify issues surrounding the provision of water to their homes.

I knew the extent of lead piping in the country.

I knew that rectifying the issue would incur a great cost on the taxpayer. We heard nothing until this week, when we were told that 200,000 households were affected and that a grant system would be put in place for them. On Wednesday, I asked a senior official at Irish Water what methodology had been used to arrive at that figure. He could not tell me because he did not know. It was a guess. The Minister went unchecked in this regard on national television. He tried to claim that the metering system and its installation had provided this information. The senior official told me that metering and the 200,000 figure bore no correlation. They were not connected at all. The official also confirmed that there could be many more such households, as the streetscapes in towns, villages and cities had not been taken into consideration. Nor is there a breakdown of pre-1962 planning permissions or the various changes made to regulations and planning legislation on water infrastructure since. If there are 200,000 households, the cost will be €1 billion at €5,000 per household. I estimate that there are 400,000 households, costing €2 billion.

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