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

That is what the Government has done since day one.

I commend Deputy Mattie McGrath on introducing this Bill and giving us the opportunity to make these comments. It would take me two days in the House to give an adequate reflection of this disaster. I could not do it in these ten minutes. Instead, I wished to highlight the freedom of information issue and give the public some of the details surrounding this ongoing scam. There is no scientific basis for claiming a figure of 200,000 in terms of the number of households that are affected by lead piping. No information leads one to believe that it is correct or incorrect or substantial or not. We might get a grant system, the Minister might announce it in the next couple of weeks and he will get money that he will be able to provide next January, but he is talking total rubbish. He does not know how many households there are or how much this will cost and he has held no discussions with his Cabinet colleagues on getting the sort of money that might be needed. It will probably be a lottery system anyway.

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