Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise to the Minister because I could not be here for most of the debate yesterday. I had a number of committee meetings to attend. I hope what I am asking in respect of this group of amendments has not been asked previously by another contributor. The amendments to amendment No. 20 have just been mentioned by Deputy Paul Murphy. I have not had the time we normally have to consider amendments properly and determine how they fit in with the overall intent of a Bill. That was stated earlier on the Order of Business and I will not repeat what was said. Normally as Whip, I take the time to consider amendments to try to inform myself, my party and the party spokesperson and to determine whether we can amend the legislation, if required, in order to keep it in line with our party policy.

I do not have that luxury, which one would have in the case of a normal Bill, because the Minister has produced a brand new Bill. I am not sure whether some of this has been dealt with, but from what I can gather, the amendments facilitate the transfer of €540 million from the motor tax fund to Irish Water. Originally, such funds went towards the cost of fixing all roads in a county. Thereafter, they were used to supplement the subvention paid by the State to local authorities such that motor tax became a local government tax used to fund water services and whatever other service local authorities looked after. If we were to tell someone from any other country in the world that we had to pay motor tax and that the funds went to a company that had nothing to do the roads, he or she would find it bizarre. At €540 million, the payment is huge. Perhaps I am a little foolish, but I thought that if there was extra money available from motor tax receipts, it would be spent on plugging the potholes that were appearing not only in rural Ireland but also in Dublin city. We see far more potholes because of the failure to fully fund local authorities.

It is also very convenient that the figure nearly corresponds with the stated cost of installing water meters. I am told that the figure was not arrived at in this way, but I find it very odd that it is a way of funding the new corporate monster that Irish Water has become. In the past, when the moneys went to local authorities, they were spent in a more efficient manner because we did not have the new high costs associated with Irish Water, including set-up costs such as the cost of installing of meters and establishing call centres. I find it strange.

The householder is not only being asked to pay domestic water charges, as part of a series of bills designed to facilitate the introduction of a company known as Irish Water, he or she is also being asked to pay commercial water charges because companies pass on costs incurred to the consumer. There is also the State subvention, the National Pensions Reserve Fund and, in the long term, the borrowings of Irish Water which will be passed on to householders in time. Despite the fact that the Government has set water charges at a certain level, they will increase in the future because it has set up Irish Water as a commercial company that must become efficient. If it has the desired effect and people pay in the way the Government wants them to pay, water charges will increase.

The Government has left a hole in the local government fund. It is interesting that the Minister mentioned this, in some ways, out of the blue, even though I was trying to see whether there was any mention of it in his opening remark in terms of how the money was to be spent and who would benefit. There would be a benefit in leaving it in the funds in terms of making local authorities more efficient and investing properly in new technologies to help deal with pollution and renew the supply for Dublin city, an issue I have mentioned here on a number of occasions and a supply which is continually endangered by the failure of the Government to invest in a renewal or a restoration of the tunnel on the Vartry river to the Dublin supply network. The Government is to allow a private company to borrow. Therefore, it will be paying not only the initial cost but also the extra cost involved, rather than investing directly, as requested by many local authorities. I know that local authorities have continually asked central government for additional moneys to plug holes in the system to make it more efficient, but they have been starved of funding, which is one of the reasons motor tax receipts are being used fo fund water services.

What is the position on VAT? Is a portion of VAT receipts being used for water conservation purposes? Are all VAT receipts going to the Exchequer? One of the reasons for the increase in the rate of VAT was to deal with a problem that had been identified because of the lack of investment in the water network in which the leakage rate was 50% or more. Apparently, Irish Water will do the devil and all and it will not cost consumers anything for a few years. However, a huge bill will then land on their doorsteps because Irish Water will borrow to do all of this work and consumers will pay not once, twice or three times but possibly four times. There is a problem with the figures the Minister is coming up with and his intentions, as we still do not know the full extent of the cost involved. How many times will the customers of Irish Water have to pay? Will it just be a single payment or will they have to pay continuously through various other mechanisms such as the State subvention, paying for the borrowings of the company or through the passing on by companies of increases in commercial water rates? At the end of the day, their customers are the Irish people. How many more times does the Government intend to raid the National Pensions Reserve Fund to keep this corporate monster afloat?

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