Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am disappointed that neither the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, nor the Minister of State, Deputy Coffey, are in the House. They are the two Ministers who debated the matter after taking over from the former Minister, Mr. Hogan. They could have turned up today but would not turn up. I am disappointed to have the Bill rejected out of hand. I am not saying the Bill is perfect or that there are things in the Bill that did not get moved on. The Bill was drafted last September. We have a lottery system and that is why the Government has half-baked freedom of information provisions. As we found out this week, it is not a fully fit-for-purpose vehicle. People cannot get the information.

I, too, wish to issue a céad míle fáilte to na daltaí in the Gallery. I welcome the young people and the old people as well on their visit to the House today.

As I said earlier, my Bill was put together with my own resources, some of my staff and some help from the Bill's office. It was a humble effort at trying to rein in the beast of Irish Water. That is what it has become; it is nothing short of a bad nasty beast. It was an attempt to rein in the ability of Irish Water to further mire hundreds of thousands of households in repair-related debt, which could run into multiples of the annual charge. Figures of €120 per hour and €170 per hour have been mentioned. We have heard so much about the Government's free first fix. When the original Bill was being debated the first fix was going to be free. Where has that gone now? No one trusts a word the Government has said on the matter. No one has any faith in Irish Water anymore. I am not attacking the staff in there, but no one trusts the organisation. It is the wrong model. It was set up with a contrived effort involving vast amounts of wasted money.

The Minister of State referred to the 2007 Act and the various powers of the CER. We have seen how the Commission for Energy Regulation has been a dismal failure with the ESB, gas and control of prices. What faith can we have in that organisation or that it will be able to control the prices of Irish Water? No one is looking at the costs to private business, including farmers, shopkeepers, hairdressers, publicans or those running funeral parlours or beauty salons and all kinds of shops. They are going to be left carrying the can because, as Deputy Cowen said earlier, Irish Water cannot tell us anything, either through the Minister, the Taoiseach or when its representatives come to the House for their clinics. That is a waste of time. They come to the audio-visual room every Wednesday but cannot tell us how many people got bills or how many have paid bills. They cannot tell us anything. We ask questions but they say we are asking political questions. They must be forgetting that Leinster House is at the top of the line and is a political house, elected by the people. Their visit to the House every Wednesday is a charade. They book up the room, which is very busy, while we have to wait eight weeks to book it. It is nonsense. It is booked under the name of the Minister, Deputy Kelly. They do not even have the courage to book it under their name. When we were here first they came but did not tell us that they were here. They did not even notify us that they were here. That is the charade under way.

The Minister of State said that the CER was robust enough to deal with disputes and that there would be no need for an ombudsman. It is not robust enough to deal with disputes. It has enough to do. As I said, the Ombudsman saw a 15% increase in his workload last year before ever Irish Water came around. Irish Water will have tens of thousands of complaints because people are getting wrong bills, double bills and wrongly addressed bills: confusion reigns. It is simply farcical. The company is going to get bigger and bigger. In time the Government will have to set up an ombudsman to deal with Irish Water, or else scrap it. We should put down the beast humanely.

The Minister of State also referred to ownership and the Water Services Act. He said it was a subsidiary of Bord Gáis Éireann and that there were shares that could not be sold or disposed of. That is hollow coming from the Minister of State who voted last week, not ten days ago, to sell off the final 25% stake of Aer Lingus. It has no credibility. What about all the robust proposals in the Water Services Act 2013? It is simply not credible. The public knows that and everyone knows that. The Government can say what it likes but no one believes it, and no one believes the Minister of State either.

The Minister of State also referred to the cost of repairs and that he could not look at any such scheme, in spite of the promise about the first fix during the debate on the original Bill under his predecessor. There was a first-fix-free policy. Now, the Government is saying it cannot entertain that because it would cost too much and would bring an incredible cost on Irish Water. Those in Irish Water do not want any costs; they want all the cream but they do not want any of the sour milk. That is what I see. They want everything their way and they want to screw the people for what they can get off them.

The Minister of State said that the other utilities would look for the same. The other utilities were set up time out of mind. The ESB has a proud legacy because of what it has delivered in this country. It was able to send people over to England and other countries during storms to help out. They will come out within an hour to fix a leak or if something bursts. Irish Water has inherited and taken over all the sewer systems but it is refusing point-blank to allow the county councils to enter any property which it maintains is quasi-public. This is the case even though the pipes were built and laid by county council workers when they were building houses or taking in charge private schemes. A public pipe running through property with a way-leave for the county council has now been transferred to Irish Water, yet Irish Water will not replace it. Only one such job has been done in my county. In fact, it is being done this morning at 4 Queen Street, Clonmel. I know of others in Ard na Greine, Barron Park and all over Clonmel as well as the rest of the constituency that will not be touched. This is being done because of the intervention of the mighty man himself, the Minister, who could not be here today. He is probably opening a telephone box in Rearcross but he does not have the respect to come to the House. He goes down to Bansha to announce a bus shelter and then he goes somewhere else. He went to the workers in South Tipperary General Hospital last week. He promised to do something for them four years ago but he did zilch for them.

He intervened the other day. He visited a house. Then he contacted the county council and got all of them to get up there with machinery and a private company to free the drains at 4 Queen Street, Clonmel. If that is not bully-boy tactics and interference I do not know what is. He should clarify the issue once and for all. Irish Water should be made to take on its responsibility to free these sewers, just as the county council was willing, ready and able to do previously. Now, the council workers are put in the invidious situation whereby they cannot do it anymore. There are tears. Elderly people have noxious fumes in their houses and back yards. We saw what can happen with sewer fumes this week and we sympathise with the families of those workers.

This Minister wants to pick and choose. He wants to say that he inherited this from the former Minister, big Phil, who is now the Commissioner. He is adding to his pension scheme in Europe but he left a mess behind him. I thank the other Deputies for their support and suggestions. As they said, the Government will not get away with this. Some time soon either this Government or the next Government will realise that this is a failed entity. The Government will have simply to abandon it or sail it out on a ship somewhere and let it sink.

The Minister of State referred to the river basin plan. No river basin committees have even been set up since they were amalgamated and since the Government disposed of local democracy. The Government simply banished it.

That is another downright misleading statement. The Minister of State also referred to the quality customer service line for which the Government pays, but it is the customer who pays to get through and listen to an answering machine, get no answers and wait on the phone for hours. That is some quality service. It is a con job of the highest order. When the customer phones the customer service line, he or she pays for it and that is supposed to be quality customer service. My goodness, the Government must think people are right fools altogether. The Minister of State keeps coming back, insultingly, to the fact that we were a desert, a barren land without water infrastructure, that we had nothing. He keeps repeating the stupid remark that the water stopped at county boundaries, as if the pipes had stop-cocks, which was never the case. If that were the case, we would not have a drop of water in this House as the water comes in from Poulaphouca and other places in County Wicklow. It is downright balderdash that would not be put through by a kindergarten but the Government thinks it can do it due to its spin doctors.

There is also the falsity of what was said about saving €80 million on the project at Ringsend. The Minister of State should tell the truth. The Government has not changed it. It is a different project to the one that was designed, planned and costed. That is downright deceitful. Does the Government think people are fools altogether? The consultants put this story into cosy talk and put a cosy spin on it and think people will believe it. Live horse and one will get grass. The Government wants to feed us all with some kind of manna. Last week I spoke about the lead in the pipes. It would be more important to take out the fluoride. The Government would put something else in the pipes if it could to put us all into a soft coma so that we might think the Government is worth re-electing, that it is a stable Government that has turned the economy around. Enda the almighty. Alan the great man. Alan the messiah from Tipperary with his chest out - John F. Kennedy. His legacy will be an Irish water system that is fit for purpose, we will all have water and we will even have champagne after the election when the Government is returned. The Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, and the Minister of State, Deputy Paudie Coffey, could not even come to the House to debate the issue.

The Taoiseach was not in the House to debate the Siteserv issue and neither was the Tánaiste. The Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ring, went into a Garda station to report a missing man, a missing Taoiseach. He could not be found. He gave a description about his appearance and where he might be found, such as opening a bottle bank in Mayo or somewhere with his thumbs up or taking a selfie or over licking Angela Merkel and those people. That is where he could be found, but he will not be found here. However, he will be found out in Mayo, in Castlebar and all over the country. The Minister of State, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, will be found out too for the fraud that he is. Those frauds are milking the people and crushing them into the ground and giving an issue such as this sustenance, more oil, fumes and consultants.

The Tánaiste, Deputy Burton, announced this week that €637,000 would be spent on IT consultants to get back the €100 people never asked for. It is nonsense to do that instead of taking €100 off the bill. Conservation grant how are you. There is not a litre of conservation asked for or recommended. It is just a pure Mills and Boon farce. As soon as the Government changes it and puts it somewhere else the better, and allow people the dignity and respect they should have and give the respect to the county council officials and workers who have always supplied the water and they did not have a big stop valve stopping water in Dún Laoghaire or coming into the bounds of Dublin. Otherwise, we would all be here with our tongues out. The Government’s tongue will be out before it is finished because the people will put it out. Go raibh maith agat and good riddance.

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